Bank of Russia injects $2B into state reinsurer to cover mounting war losses

Russia’s central bank is pouring 165 billion rubles, roughly $2 billion, into the Russian National Reinsurance Company (RNRC), the state-owned reinsurer that has become the backbone of the country’s insurance market since Western firms packed up and left. Governor Elvira Nabiullina confirmed the capital injection as a direct response to financial losses driven by Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. Record payouts and a shrinking safety net RNRC recorded approximately 71 billion rubles in reinsurance compensation payments in 2025, a record high fueled overwhelmingly by war-related claims. The company now handles around 71% of property insurance for legal entities in Russia. RNRC is wholly owned by the Bank of Russia, which already raised the company’s authorized capital to 300 billion rubles back in March 2022, shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. The latest injection suggests that even that substantial buffer wasn’t enough to absorb the pace of claims rolling in three years into the conflict. How RNRC became Russia’s only game in town Founded in 2016, RNRC was originally designed to provide a domestic reinsurance option for Russian companies. It was useful bu...