"This Has Not Happened Since The Early 2000s": Russians Are Taking Money Out Of Banks En Masse

Cash is more trusted in the RF.

Russians started switching to cash after mass blocking of bank cards and regular disconnections of mobile Internet. In January 2026, clients of Russian banks withdrew more than 1.6 trillion rubles from their accounts, which was a record since March 2022, when 2.1 trillion rubles were cashed out. At the same time, only 468 billion rubles, i.e. less than a third of the amount withdrawn, were returned to time deposits in January. This follows from the materials of the Bank of Russia, to which RBC drew attention.

Thereby, the total outflow of cash from the banking system in January amounted to about Br1.1 trillion. The return to paper banknotes may indicate the emergence of distrust in the banking and payment system, says Alexander Abramov, head of the laboratory for the analysis of institutions and financial markets at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. "Such sentiments have hardly been observed in Russia since the mid-2000s," the expert said. In the future, given the continuing problems with communications and the Internet, the population's demand for cash may increase, predicts the head of the monetary policy laboratory of the Gaidar Institute Evgeny Goryunov. At the same time, he said, if the outflow of funds from banks becomes a trend, it will begin to threaten the stability of the banking system. At the same time, the "ejection" of more than 1 trillion rubles in money circulation may affect inflation and affect the future policy of the Central Bank, concluded Goryunov.

Russians began to block cards and accounts en masse as part of the fight against fraud. According to Informzaschita's assessment, 2-3 million Russians, or 1-2% of all active bank customers, could have been temporarily blocked in early January alone. At the same time, the Central Bank has recorded that Russians began to withdraw cash more frequently due to regular Internet outages, which began last May and cover dozens of regions every day.

In addition, since July 1, 2025, the Federal Tax Service (FTS) has joined bank control and conducts spot checks of cards in cases of suspicious transactions, including detecting evasion of personal income tax and tax on the self-employed. As a result, Russians began to fear increased attention of tax authorities to their money, noted senior analyst of investment company "Rikom-Trust" Valeria Popova.

On the background of increased demand for "cache" to clients of banks under the pretext of fighting fraud began to limit the issuance of cash in ATMs. At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposed to issue no more than 50 thousand rubles in the cash offices of banks, if there is a suspicion that the client requesting money is under the influence of fraudsters. Representatives of banks supported this idea.

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