Russian Banks Face More Pain

A year ago, plunging oil prices sent the ruble spiraling to record lows and bank depositors scrambling to get their cash. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, ran through tremendous amounts of cash to survive a run it dubbed Black December—300 tons of it, 1.3 trillion rubles ($20.8 billion), in a single week. “All we could do was relax and pray,” Sberbank Chief Executive Officer Herman Gref says, recalling the worst moment in his eight years of running the state-controlled lender.

Sberbank’s deep pockets ensured its survival, and the government soon rolled out a 900 billion-ruble plan to bail out other big lenders. Smaller banks weren’t so lucky. This year regulators will shut down or take over a record number of institutions.