According to the Central Bank of Russia, Russian citizens deposited a total of 4.67 trillion RUR in the country’s banks between January 1, 2007 and November 1, 2007, roughly half of the deposits being ruble ones valid for 1 to 3 years.

'The popularity of bank deposits has to do with the customers’ desire to make sure they can keep making some nice profit in the current market conditions. Today’s high interest rates that come to 13.5% sometimes are not very likely to remain the same in a year or six months, whereas if you open a bank deposit today, your contract will provide for this high interest even in twelve or twenty-four months’ time,’ says Denis Belogurov, SKB-Bank’s Deposit Operations Director.

'Bank deposits are still seen as one of the most popular forms of investment. Analysts believe people are doing more and more of them as they are becoming more financially literate; for one, they do know that their deposits are insured by the state,’ Mr. Belogurov adds.