Russian Rouble Stays Resilient Despite Global IT Outages

Trade in the Russian rouble was largely unaffected despite global IT outages. The rouble weakened slightly against the dollar due to a global disruption involving LSEG Group's platform. Despite widespread outages, Russian banking systems remained operational, highlighting Russia's preparedness for sanctions-related disruptions.

Trade in the Russian currency appeared unaffected by global IT outages on Friday, according to traders and major banks, with the rouble weakening slightly against the dollar. LSEG Group's Workspace news and data platform suffered an outage that affected user access worldwide, causing disruption across financial markets.

By 0830 GMT, the rouble was 0.5% lower at 88.30 against the dollar, according to Moscow Exchange delayed data on rouble futures, used for this report because the LSEG data was not available. Widespread outages affecting banks, telecom networks and media were reported across the world, possibly linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.

Russian currency traders told Reuters their software and operating systems were functioning as usual. Russia's largest lender Sberbank said it did not have any problems and all the systems were functioning normally. "Everyone has long been preparing for the possibility of Microsoft being cut off due to sanctions. The current incident is a test of how well we have prepared. So far, everything is fine. At least for the major players, and generally, there is no crying in the market," one currency trader, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters.

Russia's digital development ministry said in a statement that the global outage had highlighted the importance of Russia's import substitution in software development. Trade in the Russian rouble shifted to an over-the-counter (OTC) market on June 14 after sanctions were imposed on Moscow Exchange and its clearing agent, the National Clearing Centre (NCC), obscuring access to reliable pricing.

Against the yuan, which had already become the most traded foreign currency in Moscow before the latest sanctions were imposed, the rouble shed 0.2% to 12.05, according to an analysis of the OTC market. It was up 0.2% at 95.92 against the euro, according to the Moscow Exchange data.