Russians have increased the transfer of money to investments after deposits are closed

Against the background of a decrease in the key interest rate and a drop in deposit yields, Russians are actively transferring funds from bank deposits to investment instruments. This is evidenced by data from the Financial Services Department of the Moscow Stock Exchange, which was reviewed by RBC on February 24.

It is specified that in January 2026, 3.06% of the funds released after the closure of deposits were allocated to investment products, which is almost three times more than a year earlier, when the figure was 1.06%. In February, the trend continued: in less than a month, the flow reached 1.84%, which is higher than the average monthly level in 2025.

The intensification began in the second half of last year after the Bank of Russia switched to easing monetary policy. Since June 2025, the key rate has been reduced from 21% to 16%, and in early 2026 — to 15.5%. Against this background, the average maximum deposit rate in the top 10 banks has decreased to 14.49%, and according to Finuslug, the range of deposit returns in the largest banks is now 12.8-14.4% per annum.

According to VTB, in 2025, wealthy clients transferred more than 226 billion rubles from deposits to investment products, and their total investment portfolio exceeded 2.6 trillion rubles. According to the bank's estimates, the transfer may reach another 1 trillion rubles in 2026. The First Management Company records an increase in overflows by about one and a half times compared to January last year.

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The main demand is for conservative instruments. According to Finuslug, the largest inflow of funds goes to the bonds of regions and companies with high credit ratings. Money market funds that invest in short-term bonds and repo transactions are also popular. In January 2026, the inflow to such funds amounted to 43.6 billion rubles. There is also a growing interest in real estate funds, as well as in corporate bonds and OFZs.

According to the Bank of Russia, in January 2026, private investors purchased corporate bonds worth 184 billion rubles and OFZs worth 34.2 billion rubles. In 2025, individuals' investments in corporate bonds reached 1.26 trillion rubles, which was a record.

It is noted that the flow of funds is not yet widespread, however, against the background of lower interest rates, interest in the stock market and alternative instruments continues to grow.

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On February 13, the Central Bank lowered its key rate to 15.5% per annum. The regulator stressed that the acceleration of price growth in January was due to one-time factors, and after their exhaustion, inflation will begin to decline again.

Georgy Ostapkovich, research director of the HSE Center for Market Research, told Izvestia that the Central Bank's reduction of the key interest rate to 15.5% would affect consumer lending. According to the expert, the Central Bank decided to lower the rate in favor of economic growth in order to avoid the withdrawal of economic agents from the market and from business. In addition, he noted that a reduction in the rate to 15.5% is a positive signal for businesses, which may mean a further reduction.

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