RBC poll: who got cards for paying abroad and closed foreign currency deposits Russians

adapt to the sanctions - as follows from the RBC survey, almost 25% of respondents have cards for paying abroad,and 27% closed deposits in dollars and euros

A year after the Visa and Mastercard payment systems left RUSSIA, about a quarter of respondents reported that they are bank card holders who work abroad, follows from an RBC survey for the Banks. Transformation. Economics . 2.0".

More than 3 thousand people took part in the survey. it was held in March and April 2023 on the platforms of RBC and the NKR rating agency. Respondents' answers allow us to assess how Russians have adapted to the sanctions and changed their financial behavior.

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What the survey showed

When asked about the availability of a card that allows paying abroad or in foreign online stores, 24.5% of respondents answered in the affirmative. Another 10.3% use other people's cards or intermediary services for these purposes. Most survey participants - 65.2% - do not have such a card.

In March 2022, the international payment systems Visa and Mastercard left Russia. Their cards, issued by Russian banks, stopped working in the foreign acceptance network. To pay abroad, Russians can use cards opened in foreign banks, as well as Mir and UnionPay of Russian credit organizations. In the latter cases, their acceptance network is limited by geography and the number of POS terminals.

Read PIONERPRODUKT .by Western economists have accused the consulting industry of undermining the “Get Mixed Signals” business. Who will benefit from the US banking crisis What are the types of financial directors and which of them to hire? How to stop being nervous when looking for a job: 5 tips Foreign currency deposits in dollars and euros were closed by 26.6% of respondents. Continue to keep moneyin these currencies 21.5% of respondents, 3.4% plan to open such deposits. About half of the survey participants answered that they did not have such a deposit and did not plan to open it. Only 7.4% of respondents have a bank deposit in one of the currencies of friendly countries (the survey mentioned Chinese yuan, UAE dirham, Brazilian real, Armenian dram and Kazakhstani tenge). 16.6% of respondents plan to open such a deposit, 76.6% do not have such a deposit and are not going to open it.

According to the Central Bank, as of January 1, 2023, the share of foreign currency in the savings of Russians decreased by only 2 percentage points, to 22%. But bank deposits of citizens in foreign currency decreased by 40.7% over the year, falling to $55 billion. 5 billion. The Central Bank also recorded the flow of savings in favor of the yuan, but the share of deposits in this currency is still significantly inferior to the DOLLAR and the euro.

26.4% of respondents suffered from the freezing of foreign securities. 33.7% of respondents own securities of Russian issuers, 8.7% plan to purchase them, 10.8% have refused such securities. 46.7% of survey participants do not own Russian securities and do not plan to acquire them.

Problems with conducting transactions and receiving payments on foreign securities arose for Russian investors in March 2022. The assets of the Russians were completely blocked in June of the same year - after the imposition of sanctions against NSD, because of which relations with Euroclear and Clearstream were terminated. According to the latest estimate of the Bank of Russia at the end of November 2022, the freeze affected assets worth 5.7 trillion rubles, about 20% of this amount falls on the assets of retail investors.

Also, the vast majority of survey participants do not consider the possibility of obtaining a consumer loan or mortgage this year - 84 and 85.3%, respectively. 28.4% of respondents are ready to use the digital ruble , 31.5% answered the question about this in the negative. Another 19.8% of the respondents found it difficult to answer, and 20.3% do not know what it is. The digital ruble is the digital currency of the Bank of Russia, it should become the third form of money along with cash and non-cash. The Central Bank expects to start testing the digital ruble on real customers in 2023.

What restrictions affected the financial behavior of Russians

In 2022, large-scale Western sanctions were imposed against the Russian financial sector in response to the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine  — almost all systemically important banks fell under them, and even those that were bypassed by the sanctions faced the forced closure of correspondent accounts in foreign banks .

All this led to difficulties with foreign exchange transactions. In addition, in March 2022, the US and EU authorities banned the import of cash dollars and euros into Russia. The Central Bank introduced retaliatory measures, which is why Russia has had restrictions on withdrawing foreign currency from accounts for more than a year. Individual clients are allowed to withdraw an amount up to $10,000 or its equivalent in euros if the funds were received on an account or deposit before March 9, 2022. Also, banks can sell cash euros and dollars to the public, which were received through transactions with non-resident banks or as a result of crediting to accounts from Russian legal entities.