Sberbank will save 3 billion

The State Duma postpones consideration of the law “On insurance of deposits in banks”

Another attempt to introduce a bank deposit insurance system in Russia is failing - the State Duma Council yesterday postponed consideration of the bill of the same name until the fall on the initiative of the OVR faction and with the full support of the government. Deputy head of the OVR Farida Gainullina proposed to exclude the bill “On Deposit Insurance” from the agenda of today’s State Duma meeting (to which it was postponed from May 21 due to comments from the presidential administration), who said that there are a number of conceptual comments on the text of the law. “After this, the faction leaders stood up one by one and said: let’s move the law to the fall,” one of the meeting participants told the Vremya Novostei newspaper. It was not possible to find out exactly what amendments the OVR had in mind yesterday, and a member of this faction, Pavel Medvedev, says that he does not understand “why they postponed the bill.”

Even the direct developers of the law - the Ministry of Economic Development and the Central Bank - did not expect such a development of events. Deputy head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Arkady Dvorkovich yesterday morning spoke about its adoption in the first reading as a matter already decided: there was an agreement with all relevant committees, he explained to the Vremya Novostey newspaper, that the bill would pass in the first reading, and amendments would be discussed only later. First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Andrei Kozlov also mentioned the high chances of approval of the document on Monday.

Neither deputies nor government officials hide that the main obstacle to the law “On Deposit Insurance” through the corridors of power is Sberbank, which is planned to be included in the insurance system on almost a general basis (separately for Sberbank, only the preservation of formal state guarantees on deposits is provided until 2007). This means that the country’s largest bank, which holds just under 70% of private deposits, will have to contribute up to 0.6% of the annual balances in individuals’ accounts to the general insurance fund (so far this is about 3 billion rubles).

According to a number of deputies, this clause makes the law impracticable in principle. “Sberbank is not a stumbling block (for the passage of the law. - Ed. ), - Sberbank press secretary Oleg Golovanov denied this point of view yesterday, - it’s just that the insurance system affects the interests of many parties, deputies understand this and do not want to rush to adopt " “The elections are to blame for everything; if the bill had been adopted immediately after the elections, it would have already been adopted,” agrees Anatoly Aksakov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy.

However, interested parties agree that neither Sberbank nor the deputies could have interfered with the law if the White House and the Kremlin had the desire and will to pass it as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, government representative in the State Duma Andrei Loginov yesterday agreed with the deputies: there is nothing to worry about if the bill approved by the cabinet lies in wait until the fall. A source from the Vremya Novostei newspaper in government circles explains the apparatus’s position by saying that “the appearance of deposit insurance can strengthen the position of Alexei Kudrin.” “The law gives additional powers to the Agency for the Restructuring of Credit Institutions (ARCO),” explains the official, “whose board of directors is headed by Kudrin.” And “the complex relationship between the chairman of the government and the head of the Ministry of Finance is no secret to anyone.”

A source in the White House recalls that the International Monetary Fund recently presented serious arguments against the early launch of a deposit insurance system. The report by the IMF and the World Bank notes that before the creation of a deposit insurance system, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of commercial banks and the corresponding functions of the Bank of Russia. Otherwise, experts write, “there is a high probability of unsustainable banks entering the system,” which poses a threat to the stability of the banking sector.

Be that as it may, it turns out that the conceptual bill on deposit insurance, which was once one of the priorities for Vladimir Putin, has not yet passed the State Duma for a variety of reasons. But bankers apparently take this calmly. “In order to develop more actively, this law is needed, although we are developing normally without it,” Vladimir Golubkov, first deputy chairman of the board of Rosbank, recently told the Vremya Novostey newspaper. However, the manager regrets that “for now the law is delayed.”

Vera SITNINA, Yuri VERETENNIKOV