摘要：The profit to assets ratio in the banking sector in 2007 was 3%, which is close to the level observed
in the years 2004 ¨C 2006, when this index was fluctuating around 2.9 ¨C 3.2 % (see Fig. 1). At the same
time, the profit to capital ratio in 2007 was found to be lower than during the two previous years. The
strongest influence on the decline in the profit to capital ratio was produced by the increasing capital
of Sberbank and Vneshtorgbank, resulting from their additional issues of shares. On the whole, over
the year 2007 the amount of the banking sector¡¯s funds proper grew by nearly 58 % in nominal terms.
If Sberbank is excluded from the analysis, the highest profitability would be demonstrated by those
banks whose assets as of the end of the year 2007 fall within the interval from the 11th to the 50th
place. The profit to assets ratio as of the end of the period in that group was 3 %11 (see Fig. 2), while
the top 10 banks with biggest assets demonstrated this index to be the lowest (1.8 %). That is, despite
the economy by scale factor, the biggest banks failed to display better results, in contrast, say, to the
situation in 2005 when the yields on transactions in the top 10 group by the size of assets (with Sberbank
excluded) were higher than in all the other groups (see Fig. 3). Profitability to capital ratio in the
first group was also lower than average and is behind the results displayed by all the group except the
latter one (see Fig. 4). As for small-sized banks, whose capital to assets ratio is, as a rule, higher than
that of big ones, the profitability to capital ratio in 2007 was 10.9 %.
