Russian online bank Tinkoff said on Friday it had reduced lending almost to zero but its capital buffers had been strengthened and its business was capable of withstanding external shocks.

Tinkoff said it was in uncharted territory, eight days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that triggered a huge wave of Western sanctions against Russian businesses and banks.

Co-CEO Oliver Hughes told an investor call that customers were panicking about where they could safely keep their money.

However, he said Tinkoff was "somewhat bizarrely" seeing added liquidity because it was not a sanctioned bank. It also retained full functionality on Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The bank was not seeing signs of delinquency on loans, he said, and the central bank's rate hike to 20% was encouraging customers to keep money in deposits.