MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. Russia’s top lender Sberbank is assessing the current situation in the banking sector as a massive crisis, its Chief Executive Officer Herman Gref said on Tuesday.

"What we’re facing now is a massive crisis. Zero profits, growth of reserves while the Central Bank is involved with financial recovery procedure. The next year will not be simple as well," he said.

According to Gref, the financial recovery procedure will take another several years due to tightened requirements to capital and from the viewpoint of introducing state-of-the-art technologies, transparency and risk management.

Meanwhile, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Alexey Simanovskiy said on Tuesday there are no signs of banking crisis in Russia. "I can hardly see any signs of crisis," he said.

German Gref forecasts that Russia’s economic growth will be close to zero in 2016, while global oil prices will at the same time be above $50 a barrel next year.

"Situation in the economy will be about zero. More factors are in favor of a small decline so far but it is fairly possible to achieve [economic] growth next year", Gref said.

Everything will depend on oil prices next year and certain other factors, for example, quality improvement of economic policy, Sberbank CEO said.

"We may have 0.5-0.6% [growth] next year," he added.