Banking services are used by many Russians, but not all of them think about the fact that before concluding a deposit or credit agreement, it is always necessary to assess the financial condition of the credit institution that they like.
The events of recent years have clearly demonstrated that not all banks have the necessary margin of stability and conduct their activities in accordance with the requirements of regulatory and legislative acts of Russia. That is why the cases of bankruptcy of credit institutions and the revocation of their licenses to carry out operations have become more frequent. Today, the question of the stability of a particular bank worries many clients. Not everyone knows how to correctly assess the condition of a bank, but there are a number of methods that allow you to determine with a high probability whether the credit institution you are interested in is reliable.
Ratings and rankings
This tool for assessing the bank's stability is available to all clients. Various ratings can be found on specialized banking portals, for example, Banks.ru and Bankir.ru. Lending institutions that occupy the first lines of the list usually show good financial performance: they are all profitable, and their assets are growing at a fast pace.
Of course, there are no rules without exception: the Bank of Moscow, which has always occupied a leading position in the ratings, in the past, had serious financial problems. However, the state, considering it one of the backbones, decided to save the sinking bank. The clients of the Bank of Moscow did not lose money, and the credit institution, after the reorganization, was able to continue its activities. Therefore, one can hope that if a bank, which is in the TOP-20 in terms of assets, has problems, the state will try to save it by transferring it to trust management of some state corporation. Banks outside the top 100 are unlikely to receive such a fate.
Financial performance
"Advanced" clients will be interested in analyzing the structure and quality of the bank's assets and liabilities. If most of the liabilities are deposits of individuals (accounts 423), this is a sign of its instability. Probably, companies do not trust such a credit institution, and citizens can withdraw deposits from it at any time. In a stable bank, a large part of the loan portfolio falls on “long” loans to individuals and legal entities with a long maturity, and the predominance of “short” consumer loans in the balance sheet is always regarded as an alarming sign.
An excellent characteristic of the bank's stability is the regulatory indicators of liquidity, capital adequacy, risks, profitability and efficiency. Information about them can be found in reporting on Forms 101, 102, 135, which each bank is obliged to post both on the official website of the Bank of Russia and on its own Internet portal.
Installation data
It is possible to assess the state of the bank by focusing on the composition of its owners and the frequency of their turnover. If there are large state corporations or reputable private companies among the bank's shareholders, it will be quite stable. The predominance of individuals among shareholders, especially if none of them has a controlling stake, is often a reason to think about the reliability of a credit institution.
