Russian banks pay back c.bank loans early

MOSCOW Nov 11 (Reuters) - Russian banks paid back nearly 650 million roubles ($23 million) of collateral-free loans to the central bank ahead of schedule in the third quarter, as cheaper funding becomes available, data showed on Wednesday.

Collateral-free loans were introduced last year to help the sector through the economic crisis and global liquidity crunch.

But with the situation improving on both fronts, banks are keen to get cheaper funding, while the central bank also wants to reduce its exposure to the risky loans.

In the first nine months of 2009, banks repaid 1.76 billion roubles of collateral-free loans ahead of schedule, with 649 million of that in the third quarter, according to a central bank report submitted to parliament on Wednesday.

Outstanding loans as of Nov. 11 stood at 229 million roubles, down from 1.77 billion at the end of last year. (Reporting by Yelena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Toni Vorobyova, editing by Will Waterman)