INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia has almost $1 trillion of liquid wealth, Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar said.Russia still has about $300 billion of foreign
currency held in offshore swaps -- enough to disrupt money markets if they are frozen by sanctions or moved suddenly to avoid them.That's
according to Credit Suisse Group AG strategist Zoltan Pozsar, who parsed data from the Bank of Russia and financial markets to calculate the
figure. “When flows change, spreads can gap,” Pozsar wrote in a report Thursday
“If things escalate, it's hard not to see a direct impact on FX swaps and U.S
dollar Libor fixings given Russia's vast financial surpluses and where those surpluses are deployed.”Russia's central bank and private
sector have almost $1 trillion of liquid wealth, with a much larger share of this held in U.S
dollars than most people realize, even after the country sold all its Treasuries holdings in 2018, Pozsar wrote
He estimates about $200 billion is held in foreign-exchange swaps, with another $100 billion in deposits at foreign banks
That's a large enough amount to substantially shift funding markets, according to Pozsar
dollar exposure is about 50%, compared with the 20% it reports, Credit Suisse estimates.
