| The bill on deposit insurance has reached its first reading Tomorrow the State Duma will consider a bill on insurance of deposits in banks, which has become the personification of the entire banking reform - broadly conceived and almost failed by the authorities. The government believes that the law will easily pass at least the first reading. And the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Andrei Kozlov, on the eve of the fateful meeting, recalled that he intends to carry out reform and check banks according to new criteria, regardless of whether private deposits are insured in Russia.
Yesterday, the Duma Council left the law on deposit insurance on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting, scheduling its consideration at 16.00. Deputy Minister of Economic Development Arkady Dvorkovich says that “this means only one thing: all interested parties have decided that this law can be adopted in the first reading.” “However, it is unlikely that it will be finally adopted by the current composition of the Duma,” the official adds. Deputies Pavel Medvedev and Martin Shakkum also make it clear that approval of the law in the first reading is almost a done deal. A compromise has obviously been found in the government itself - in recent months, issues of participation in the insurance system of Sberbank and the Agency for the Restructuring of Credit Institutions (ARCO) have been discussed here - although the fate of the document is influenced not only by officials, but also by the bankers themselves.
By the way, among them, assessments of the prospects for the law are not so clear. Thus, last Friday Alfa Bank released an analytical report, which notes that the adoption of the controversial law is already unlikely, since the business situation has changed over the past year. “The growth of deposits by 18% since the beginning of the year (which was accompanied by a decrease in Sberbank’s market share from almost 70% to 65%. - Ed. ) reduced interest in this scheme,” Alpha analysts write. “Whereas banks used to pay more attention to the benefits that the law promised, now they are concerned about the risks associated with it.”
On the one hand, banks are not happy about inspections from the Central Bank and selection into the insurance system, on the other hand, they are afraid that even unstable organizations will pass this selection. Then a good bank will have to pay both for itself and for “that guy” who manages risks poorly. In the summer, the IMF and the World Bank wrote to the government about the undesirability of this scenario. According to experts, a deposit insurance system should be introduced only after the transition to international reporting standards, strengthening of supervision and, as a result, clearing of the market. The government “intends to use deposit insurance schemes, including as a mechanism for revoking the licenses of insignificant and unwisely managed banks.”
“We are not upset by the delay in introducing the insurance system for the reason that the Central Bank does not properly control banking risks,” Alfa Bank echoes the World Bank and the IMF. <...> Under such conditions, the deposit insurance system could hardly be successfully implemented.” Meanwhile, the Central Bank has repeatedly reminded that the launch of deposit insurance is a good reason to check banks for professional suitability according to new criteria (and they contain both quantitative and qualitative assessments of Central Bank employees) and to strengthen supervision. However, even without this law, banks cannot avoid such checks. And yesterday, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Andrei Kozlov explained what was meant.
According to him, Neglinnaya is preparing a new edition of the instructions on assessing the financial condition of credit institutions, in which the old criteria will be replaced by new ones. “These principles are taken from the first section of the draft instructions for selecting banks for the deposit insurance system,” said Mr. Kozlov, “and we, in turn, borrowed them from the foreign methodology for assessing credit institutions CAMEL.” According to the draft instructions, the criteria are: financial stability, transparency of the ownership structure (including the share of offshore bank owners not exceeding 10%. - Ed. ), the quality of current management, risk management systems and internal control systems and the quality of strategic management and business planning. The division of banks into four groups based on financial stability will remain the same.
Andrey Kozlov notes that the new version of the instructions will be put into effect this year. As you know, the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank does not like the word “reform” in relation to the banking sector, although the introduction of new principles for assessing and checking banks can radically change their relationship with the Central Bank even without deposit insurance. Yuri VERETENNIKOV |
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