Vasily Pozdychev, deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, said Russian banks' assets are expected to grow by 22 percent in 2014.

This increase would push total assets above $1.5 trillion; Pozdychev said they stood at $1.4 trillion at the beginning of November.

“The figures do not suggest that the diagnosis for the banking system is bad; in my view, the figures are fairly good,” Pozdychev said.

The recent currency revaluation played a large role in this year's asset growth, but even without the revaluation, Russian banks’ growth rates still would be ahead of last year's growth, Pozdychev said.

“This is also mainly caused by the effect of import substitution for loans as large Russian banks and large corporate clients were denied access to foreign refinancing this year, and the banking system has to substitute Western loans and is actively beginning to replace them,” Pozdychev said, referring to Western economic sanctions against Russia.