The profit of Russian banks in January-August 2017 reached RUB997bn ($17.3bn), according to the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). That is a m/m gain of RUB85bn, a slow month for Russia’s banks thanks to the long summer holidays, but is already more than the sector earned in all of 2016. By this time last year banks had earned only RUB533bn and earned RUB945bn for the full year.

"The profit growth continued: profit for eight months in the amount of RUB997bn and has already exceeded the financial result for 2016. Profit is a source of capital growth, and we believe that this is how it should be used first of all,” Nabiullina said at an annual banking conference in Sochi, reports Vedomosti.

Profits are increasingly coming from the recovering retail banking sector, where mortgage lending in particular is a money-spinner. Russian banks have increased loans to the population by 7% since the beginning of the year, according to the CBR.

Nabiullina said that Russian banks increased loans to the economy by 3.5% over the first eight months of 2017 and retail loans are up by 7%.

Retail lending has been in decline for years, but has started to rise again since the start of this year on the back of a mild economic recovery and rising income levels.

"Loans to individuals increased by 7%. The population's deposits continue to grow and increased by 5% in the eight months to almost RUB25 trillion ($433bn)," Nabiullina said at the International Banking Forum in Sochi.