Bury your money in banks

The Bank of Russia announced guarantees for citizens' deposits in six commercial banks: MENATEP, Mosbusinessbank, Inkombank, Promstroibank, SBS-AGRO and Most Bank. Each investor must decide for himself whether to use them or not. Although, in essence, you have to choose between complete or partial loss of your deposit. It is impossible to get back all the money invested in the bank.

The Central Bank's deposit guarantee program began... with their freezing until November 15. At the same time, the main guarantee of the Bank of Russia is that the money will be issued by Sberbank upon the arrival of this period. In order to receive them, you must stand in line at the bank before September 26 and write an application to transfer an account from your bank to Sberbank.
You also have to wait in line if you do not want to transfer your deposit to Sberbank—you can declare your refusal to transfer and unfreeze the deposit at any time. But if you do neither one nor the other, the deposits, according to the decision of the Central Bank, will be automatically frozen until November 15.
Why the Central Bank took such a strange path is anyone's guess. After all, it was possible not to freeze anything and simply invite everyone to write applications for the transfer of deposits. And the queues at bank branches will be even longer.
Now about what actually gets frozen. The Central Bank's decision affects only time deposits (deposits) and demand deposits in rubles and foreign currency. Current and salary accounts linked to plastic cards are not frozen. But they can also be transferred to Sberbank - in this case, money for them will also be paid after November 15. However, at least Mosbusinessbank cardholders no longer have a choice. The bank's payment means department told us that all card holders must write a statement about terminating their validity and transferring card money to Sberbank. In the other five banks, no one insists on transferring current accounts.

What to do
Essentially, the depositor has only two options: either transfer accounts or not transfer. But both are almost equally bad. It is necessary to give up the illusion that the money will be returned in full.
In our opinion, it still makes sense to transfer a deposit to Sberbank if it is opened in rubles. The same applies to current ruble accounts. Of course, inflationary losses in this case cannot be avoided - prices in stores have already increased one and a half to two times, and by November 15, if the depreciation of the ruble continues, they will inevitably increase even more. It is also important that Sberbank will open not time deposit accounts, but “demand” accounts, the rates on which are much lower. Finally, according to the Confederation of Consumer Societies, depositors will no longer have grounds to demand payment of interest, penalties and other penalties for delays in payments. All this is true.
However, losses from inflation are inevitable in any case. After all, none of the six banks undertakes to promise to pay off deposits immediately. SBS-AGRO, for example, offers owners of ruble deposits to renew the agreement for six months (that is, it promises to return the money no earlier than February).
Meanwhile, Sberbank's guarantees look more reliable. Ultimately, the Central Bank may print money to pay off depositors. Alexander Polyakov, First Vice-President of Most Bank, also thinks so: The only possible way to repay obligations to depositors under the scheme proposed by the Central Bank is money emission.
It is much worse for those who once opened a foreign currency deposit. If it is transferred to Sberbank after three months, it will be returned in rubles at the rate on September 1 - 9.3 rubles per dollar. In conditions of devaluation, these are huge losses. Today, no one undertakes to give a more or less clear forecast of the dollar exchange rate. The only guide can be futures prices on the Chicago Stock Exchange, where contracts expiring in November are currently sold at a rate of 20 rubles per dollar. It is easy to calculate that in this case your contribution is depreciated by more than twice.
In addition, it is naive to think that the money will be available on November 16th. In total, there are about 6 million private depositors in the six banks that are subject to the guarantee procedure. So there will be a long line of people wanting to receive money: Sberbank will not be able to quickly cope with the influx of a huge amount of documentation and a sharply increased number of clients. It is difficult to advise anything in this situation, since no one at Sberbank even knows approximately how deposits will be issued. But if you have made a firm decision to transfer the deposit, then, just in case, you should write an application for transfer as quickly as possible. It may happen that the order of payments will be determined based on the date of submission of applications.
Meanwhile, today many of the owners of foreign currency accounts in banks say that they will take the risk again and will not transfer money to Sberbank. Konstantin Vishnevsky, owner of a foreign currency deposit in SBS-AGRO: I didn’t withdraw the money on time, so now I’ll wait until the last minute. Maybe aliens will arrive and finally teach our government and bankers to work like human beings. To be honest, I don’t see any other ways to resolve the crisis in Russia. But it’s pointless to twitch and transfer deposits back and forth. Someone correctly said that if Russia used to be a country of unafraid idiots, now it is a country of scared idiots. They will be deceived in any case. Dmitry Galyadkin, depositor of SBS-AGRO Bank: I managed to withdraw 13 thousand rubles from my foreign currency deposit, having lost 10% on conversion. If I had withdrawn the entire amount, I would have lost several thousand dollars. Now the situation is such that you only have to worry about not incurring too large losses in any decision. I decided to proceed from the principle of “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Most likely, I will transfer part of the money to Sberbank in rubles, and leave part in SBS - and then suddenly it will be possible to receive it in foreign currency. You will probably even have to restructure your contribution to an annual one. Andrey Golovanov, owner of a deposit in Most Bank: I trust the state even less. And I won’t translate anything anywhere.
Professional financiers also find it difficult to give any specific advice. Thus, the president of Globex Bank, Anatoly Motylev, believes that the problem is only in the bank’s liquidity. The main question is whether there is money or not. This alone will determine whether clients will get their savings back. The trouble is that it is impossible to give an absolutely precise answer to the question of how any of the six banks are doing.

Who is guilty
However, there are two more options. The first is to try to cancel the decision of the Bank of Russia and return everything to its original state. To do this, you need to sue the Central Bank. According to ConfOP, the decision of the board of directors of the Central Bank is contrary to the law. The Central Bank itself explained to us that the board of directors made a decision to freeze deposits in six banks on the basis of Art. 75 of the Law "On the Bank of Russia". However, this article only talks about the fact that the Central Bank has the right to restrict certain transactions in a particular bank for a period of up to six months if this bank has violated federal laws, regulations and instructions of the Bank of Russia. But no such charges were brought against any of the banks, so the court may well overturn the Central Bank’s decision. It is unlikely that this will mean that the accounts transferred to Sberbank will be returned. But the banks themselves will have the opportunity to pay clients.
Lawyer Stanislav Puginsky, very well known in financial circles, is also confident that the very guarantees promised by the Central Bank are controversial: The only legislative act that deals with the safety of individuals’ deposits is the law “On Banks and Banking Activities.” Regarding Sberbank in Art. 36 of this law states: “The safety and return of deposits of individuals in banks created by the state and banks in the authorized capital of which the state owns more than 50% of the voting shares are guaranteed by the state in the manner prescribed by federal laws.” However, the only federal law on which he can rely is the law “On Guaranteeing Deposits,” which has not yet been approved by the Duma. If so, statements of guarantees to Sberbank are a simple declaration.
Finally, the most radical solution to the problem is to sue the bank itself where you keep the money. If the bank is declared bankrupt, its property will be sold, and thus the liquidation commission will be able to pay off creditors. For owners of foreign currency deposits, this is the most realistic chance to save their money. True, there is one significant “but”. Depositors' demands are fulfilled in the third or fourth priority (see help). And the bank’s property is unlikely to be enough to pay everyone. Therefore, if you file a claim, it should be today. The first in line have a better chance of getting your money back.

YULIA PANFILOVA, ELENA KISELEVA, ALEXANDER SEMENOV

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IF THE CENTRAL BANK WANTED TO GUARANTEE DEPOSITS IN BANKS, IT WAS EASIER NOT TO FREEZE THEM, BUT SIMPLY OFFER EVERYONE WANTED TO TRANSFER THEM TO SBERBANK. AND THE LINES AT BANKS WILL STILL LONGER
IT MAKES SENSE TO TRANSFER RUBLE DEPOSITS TO SBERBANK. IT IS BETTER FOR CURRENCY CURRENCY OWNERS TO SUE WITH THE CENTRAL BANK AND THE BANKS THEMSELVES
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Before death

How to sue a bank
To file a claim against the bank, you can contact a lawyer. Now in Moscow alone there are more than 30 bar associations, each of which has several territorial branches. Based on existing rates, a lawyer can ask for up to 10% of the claim amount for his services (if the bank loses the case, he will cover these costs). Payment for the lawyer's services is made immediately.
But, according to Promsvyazbank lawyer Vitaly Salenkov, litigation between depositors and banks does not require serious legal support. So each investor can protect his rights in court independently.
The fact is that, according to the Civil Code, the depositor has the right to demand his money from the bank at any time - even if the agreement with the bank states that early withdrawal of the deposit is not carried out. All claims related to non-repayment of money to depositors are recognized by the court as cases under the jurisdiction of the law on the protection of consumer rights.
The location of the court is not important: with equal success you can sue either at the place of residence of the plaintiff (in this case, the depositor) or at the place of registration of the defendant (bank). But it’s easier to do this at your place of residence.
The application to the court must be written in two copies. It should contain the essence of the claims: on such and such a date I deposited money in the bank on such and such terms (as confirmation - a copy of the agreement with the bank; it does not need to be certified by a notary). Next, it is necessary to state the facts of the violation on the part of the bank: on such and such a date I was denied the return of my deposit. To confirm the fact of refusal, it is enough to refer to the fact that you made an entry about this in the bank’s “Complaints and Suggestions” book, and be sure to make this entry. You can refer to witness statements, indicating the place of residence of the witnesses, so that if necessary, they can be summoned to court. The statement must end with a demand for the return of funds with payment of interest due. You can and should demand compensation for moral damage. That is, compensation for moral or physical suffering. To receive such compensation, you should write that you had a nervous breakdown and suffered damage to your health (attaching receipts for the purchase of validol). You can demand any amount as compensation, but the court itself will determine the amount of recovery. There is no statute of limitations for bank refusals to issue a deposit - sue for your health.
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After death

How a bank dies
The main risk for depositors who decide not to transfer accounts to Sberbank is that things at the bank may go from bad to worse until the Central Bank finally decides to revoke its license. It's important to know what's going on so you can make an informed decision.

After the Central Bank decides to revoke a bank’s license, a liquidation commission begins its work. Its purpose is to evaluate and sell the bank's assets to satisfy the interests of its creditors and clients. The composition and head of the commission are determined at a general meeting of creditors and shareholders of the bank in the presence of representatives of the Central Bank.
Naturally, payments occur on a first-come, first-served basis. First of all, the budgets receive money - federal, republican, local. Then - the Pension Fund. After this, the salary arrears (if any) must be repaid. Then comes the turn of private depositors, legal entities and, finally, shareholders or shareholders of the bank. Payments begin, as a rule, only after the liquidation commission has found and sold all the bank’s assets.
To search for assets, the liquidation commission carries out a reconciliation of the bank's balance sheet accounts. In banks from the top ten, this work, according to experts, can last for more than one year. The bank assets that are of interest to the liquidation commission include (in approximate order of liquidity level): the required reserve fund in the Central Bank; correspondent account with the Central Bank; ruble and foreign exchange cash desks; correspondent accounts in foreign banks; government securities, corporate shares; issued loans, investments, participation in shares of joint-stock companies; technical assets - furniture, buildings, computers, armored vehicles, mobile phones.
The head of one Moscow bank admitted that, in his opinion, if any problems arise with the bank, one should immediately file a lawsuit. It is easier to get money from a bank that is still alive than from a bank that already has a liquidation commission. According to bankers, creditors of those banks in which the liquidation commission worked, who decided to defend their rights in court even before the license was revoked, sometimes received money even before the bank’s debt to the federal budget was repaid. Of course, the liquidation commission may refuse to execute a court order due to the need to reconcile bank balance sheet accounts, but the chances of those who go to court in the first place are still immeasurably higher than other creditors.
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Victim's last word

The Central Bank limited the rights of bank employees
Alexander Subbotin, Inkombank: The Central Bank made a good, correct decision. However, we will not put pressure on our investors. We just contacted them with written explanations on the decisions of the Central Bank - the corresponding order was sent to all branches of the bank. And then we will act in accordance with the agreement with each of them. True, the decisions of the board of directors of the Central Bank dated September 1 limit the rights of representatives of the bank itself: deposits of employees and management cannot be transferred to Sberbank. In our opinion, this violates our rights as investors and citizens of Russia.

You will have to think about the interests of clients first.
Elena Matveeva, MENATEP: This decision did not change our plans too much. We have already begun work on registering clients wishing to transfer their deposits to Sberbank. True, if yesterday we had to communicate only with those who wanted to leave, now we will have to communicate with every client. And this, of course, will seriously increase the volume of organizational work. We are now looking for opportunities to systematize our work with clients. It is clear to everyone that deposits will be restructured both in Sberbank and in other banks. But none of the major banks that plan to continue working with private deposits have any desire to lose that market. Therefore, you will have to think about the interests of clients first.

Central Bank decisions destabilize the banking system
Sergey Meshcheryakov, SBS-AGRO: The decision of the Central Bank, announced the very next day after the forced decision to transfer the money of depositors of six banks to Sberbank, only further destabilized the situation. We had already begun to implement the previous order of the Central Bank, prepared an agreement with Sberbank of Russia, and on Friday the bank employees were simply confused. This is a continuation of the Central Bank’s policy aimed at destabilizing the banking system. And as long as Dubinin is at the head of the Central Bank, chaos will grow. I think that there is no reasonable explanation for the actions of the Bank of Russia. It's just panic. Therefore, we adopted a memorandum that clearly defines our position. We give all depositors a choice: they can transfer money to Sberbank or leave a deposit in SBS-AGRO Bank on the terms we offer. Already on Monday, both the memorandum and conditions will be posted in all branches and offices. For now, I can only say that the interest rate on ruble deposits will not be lower than in Sberbank, and on foreign currency deposits - 5% per annum. But I cannot advise investors on what choice to make. This applies to each individual investor, and everyone must make their own decision.

Magazine "Kommersant Money" No. 34 dated 09.09.1998, p. 8

Authors:

Elena Kiseleva