Central Bank of Russia

According to the constitution, it is an independent entity, with the primary responsibility of protecting the stability of the national currency, the ruble.[14]

Before 1 September 2013, it was the main regulator of the Russian banking industry, responsible for banking licenses, rules of banking operations and accounting standards, serving as a lender of last resort for credit organizations. After pointed date functions and powers of CBR were significantly expanded and the central bank received the status of a mega-regulator of all financial markets of Russia.[15]

It holds the exclusive right to issue ruble banknotes and coins through the Moscow and St. Petersburg mints, the Goznak mint. The central bank issues commemorative coins made of precious and non-precious metals as well as investment ones made of precious metals, which are distributed inside and outside the country.[16] In 2010, in honor of its 150th anniversary it issued a 5-kilo commemorative gold coin Alexander II.[17]

Under Russian law, half of the bank's profit must be channeled into the government's federal budget. The Central Bank of Russia is a member of the BIS.[18]

The Bank of Russia owns a 57.58% stake in Sberbank, the country's leading commercial bank. The Bank of Russia owns as well 100% stake in Russian National Reinsurance Company (RNRC), biggest national reinsurance company. RNRC was established in July 2016 for prevention possible problems with abroad reinsurance of large risks under International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis, like constructing the Crimean Bridge.[19]

Main Directorate of the Bank of Russia for the Central Federal District

The Central Bank of Russia holds directly significant participatory interests in a number of Russian companies:

• Sberbank of Russia (50%+1 voting share of the stock);
• Moscow Exchange (11.779% of the stock);
• Russian National Reinsurance Company (100% of the stock);
• Trust company of the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund (100% of the stock);
• Rosincas (Russian Association of Cash-in-transit).

Additionally, the Bank of Russia held earlier interests in some other Russian organizations. In particular, after the liquidation of Gosbank (State Bank of the USSR), the CBR beneficially acquired complete or controlling interests in five so-called "Russian Foreign Banks" (until 1991 – "Soviet Foreign Banks"):

• VTB Bank (99.99% of the stock – until 2002, now - 60.9% owned by The Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) );
• Donau Bank AG, Vienna;
• East-West United Bank, Luxemburg;
• Eurobank, Paris;
• Moscow Narodny Bank, London;
• Ost-West Handelsbank, Frankfurt am Main.

All of them were members of the USSR Vneshekonombank system and were transferred to the CBR in 1992 by the Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Russia.[26] For over five years – 2000 to 2005 – all stocks of the Russian Foreign Banks were being purchased from the Bank of Russia by VTB Bank.[27][28][lower-alpha 1] As part of the financial support to credit institutions, the Bank of Russia invests in them through the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund and acquires (on a temporary and indirect basis) shares in the equity of such banks. The first project of this kind was Otkritie FC Bank, in summer 2017.

  Russian inflation rate

  Central Bank of Russia key interest rate

Russian bonds, inverted yield curves to tame inflation during their wars (Russo-Georgian War, Russo-Ukrainian War, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine)

  20 year bond

  10 year bond

  1 year bond

  3 month bond

In December 2014, amidst falling global oil prices, Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, capital flight, and fears of recession, the bank had increased the one-week minimum auction repo rate up by 6.5 points to 17 percent. This caused a run on the ruble, and on 29 January, the bank decreased the rate by two points to 15 percent.

In January 2015, the head of monetary policy, Ksenia Yudayeva, a proponent of strict anti-inflation policy, was replaced by Dmitry Tulin, who is "seen as more acceptable to bankers, who have called for lower interest rates".[30]

In response to the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis, multiple countries imposed economic sanctions against Russian banks. On 22 February 2022, US president Joe Biden announced restrictions of activities by US citizens involved with the Bank of Russia and others.[31] In March, the Bank of International Settlements suspended the Bank of Russia.[32] In March 2022, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation blocked Russian securities from the Bank of Russia and Russia's finance ministry.[33] At the end of May 2022, three months into the invasion of Ukraine, the central bank cut interest rates in an effort to prop up the increasingly isolated Russian economy, suffering shortages and supply chain issues. The inflation rate rose to 17.8 percent in April. Also the ruble reached its strongest level against the U.S. dollar in four years, hurting exports.[34]

Sanctions also included asset freezes on the Russian Central Bank,[35] which holds $630 billion in foreign-exchange reserves,[36] to prevent it from offsetting the impact of sanctions.[37] On 5 May 2022, President of the European Council Charles Michel said: "I am absolutely convinced that this is extremely important not only to freeze assets but also to make possible to confiscate it, to make it available for the rebuilding" of Ukraine.[38]

• Barenboim, Peter (2001). "Constitutional Economics and the Bank of Russia". Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law. 7 (1): 160.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Central Bank of Russia.

• Bank of Russia (in Russian and English)
• (in Russian) Creation of the State Bank of the Russian Empire
• (in Russian) State Bank of the Russian Empire at the site of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation
• (in English) State Bank of the Russian Empire at the site of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation