Chart: Russian Bank Deposits in the U.S. Before and After Sanctions
By Brian LeBlanc, May 29, 2014
According to data provided by the U.S. Treasury, approximately $13.5 billion in bank deposits held by Russians left U.S. banks in March:
What happened between February and March? On February 26th, Russian military forces began to invade Crimea, setting off the international crisis in the region. Within a few weeks, Western nations imposed sanctions on some Russian individuals.
The data are compiled by U.S. banking institutions and represents all “Non-negotiable” deposits held by foreigners. This excludes other common banking liabilities such as short-term treasury bonds, securities, or negotiable CDs.
Data for April won’t be out for a few weeks. It will be interesting to see if the drop off is sustained or not. The deposits that left could have been in response to U.S. sanctions, anticipation of which may have caused wealthy Russians to shift their deposits from U.S. banks to places where the U.S. doesn’t have jurisdiction.
The drop off in Russian deposits is not likely to have any meaningful impact on the U.S. financial system. There were approximately $1.95 trillion in foreign, non-negotiable deposits in U.S. banks in March, and probably 4 times that in domestic deposits.
Image Credit: Some Rights Reserved by Alexandr Samoyluk