The crisis of confidence in the summer of 2004 is gradually dying away, leaving only a few victims behind. Most bankers believe that there is no real reason to panic. With a 7 percent GDP growth rate, in terms of economic development, Russia looks as promising as never before, while overall government debt is still relatively low.
However, most Russian depositors have not yet forgotten the 1998 banking crisis, when millions of dollars in personal savings "evaporated"in one day. It was a reason to start actively withdrawing money from their accounts. Some analysts believe that the private banking sector lost $ 2 billion in a month.
The crisis began when the Central Bank revoked the license of inspectors Sodbusinessbank, after being accused of money laundering against the bank's management. After that, there were rumors about the Central Bank doing "black list"financial institutions that were closed shortly. Although no government official ever confirmed the existence of such a list, the Central Bank's management then made every effort to refute this information.
In Russia, where 1,300 banks have assets totaling only $ 30 billion, most financial institutions cannot meet the minimum transaction volume. Even low mandatory requirements (the minimum share capital is 1 billion euros or $ 1.2 billion) cannot help here. The lack of public trust is also due to the policy of information opacity, which is still pursued by many banks. The regulatory authorities are still unwilling to change this situation.
This was the main reason why the closure Sodbusinessbank provoked the crisis. Because Russian banks were afraid of lending to each other, the managers of many banks found it impossible to obtain financial resources from the interbank market.
Public problems continued to escalate when another bank Credittrust, filed for bankruptcy on June 8 when rumors of a bank run by the same people who owned Sodbusinesbank, began to circulate in the market.
However, the crisis dealt a devastating blow to Guta-Bank... The data of $ 206 million in separate deposits and an active advertising campaign all over the Russian capital were canceled, Guta-Bank was a financial institution whose name was known to every citizen. After the closure of the bank, rumors surfaced about the investigation of financial crimes that allegedly took place in banking operations. Guta Group... Finally, Guta-Bank was sold to state owned Vneshtorgbank.
However, it was already too late to reassure the depositors. They emptied their accounts in a matter of days and robbed banks of hundreds of millions of dollars. This situation was difficult enough for Alfa Bank, which is the fourth largest in Russia in terms of assets. The bank's management has accused competitors of spreading hostile rumors, and many experts believe these accusations are not unfounded. Depositors took $ 240 million from the bank, which is about 20% of all private deposits Alfa-Bank for just three days.
The bank was supported by its main shareholders, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, who invested $ 200 million of their personal funds in the bank, and also contributed to a $ 500 million loan. Alfa Bank managed to survive the crisis.
At the same time, the CBR reduced its reserve requirement from 7% to 3.5% to help troubled banks accumulate assets more accessible to depositors. The State Duma swiftly passed a new law providing for the provision of temporary government guarantees on all deposits not exceeding 100,000 rubles ($ 3,430). This decision stabilized the market situation.
In any event, damage to public confidence cannot be prevented at this stage. Rather than supporting the rise of solid private banks like Alfa Bank, the Russians could be diverted to state-owned Sberbank, thus further strengthening the government's monopoly in the sector. Foreign banks can directly benefit from the situation that has emerged, although few of them are represented in Russia. You might be interested in the article 10 richest banks in the world.
So, here is the list of banks that are most trusted by Russians:
- SBERBANK
- VNESHTORGBANK
- GAZPROMBANK
- ALFA-BANK
- ROSBANK
- MDM-BANK
- BANK OF MOSCOW
- INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL BANK
- INTERNATIONAL MOSCOW BANK
- RAIFFEISENBANK AUSTRIA
- INDUSTRIAL AND CONSTRUCTION BANK
- CITIBANK
- URALSIB
- PROMSVYAZBANK
- NIK OIL
- PETROKOMMERZ
- NOMOS-BANK
- GUTA-BANK
- GLOBEX
- ZENIT BANK
- AVTOBANK-NIK OIL
- VOSROZHDENIYE
- BIN
- EUROFINANCE MOSNARBANK
- MENATEP SPB
- AK BARS
- SOYUZ
- TRUST
- IMPEXBANK
- SURGUTNEFTEGAZBANK
- TRANSKREDITBANK
- RUSSIAN STANDARD
- COMMERZBANK EURASIA
- NATIONAL RESERVE BANK
- BANK OF KHANTY-MANSIYSK
- MOSCOW BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
- BANK ABN AMRO
- ING BANK EURASIA
- SOBINBANK
- BALTIC BANK
- MOSCOW INDUSTRIAL BANK
- FIRST CZECH-RUSSIAN BANK
- CREDIT AGROPROMBANK
- ZAPSIBKOMBANK
- SUDOSTROITELNY BANK
- ROSSELKHOZBANK
- AVANGARD
- VISAVI
- CREDIT SWISS FIRST BOSTON
- INTERNATIONAL BANK OF SPB
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