Russia’s five largest lenders boosted their assets last month to control a combined half of the country’s banking system, Bank Rossii said.

The top five Russian lenders’ assets rose to 20.8 trillion rubles as of Jan. 1, or 50 percent of the total, from 19.8 trillion a month earlier, or 49.6 percent, the Moscow-based regulator said in a statement on its website today.