Translated material
Everyone is full and safe
DIA offers to make life easier for both depositors and banks
The stable situation in the banking system and the high volume of the insurance fund allows the Deposit Insurance Agency to simultaneously increase the amount of compensation to private depositors of problem banks and reduce the burden on credit institutions , which are obliged to pay quarterly funds to this fund. DIA General Director Alexander Turbanov announced this yesterday. However, the final decision on reducing banks’ contributions to the insurance fund will be made on March 6 at the DIA board of directors. But yesterday State Duma deputies already adopted a bill increasing insurance coverage to 400 thousand rubles in the second and third readings.As Mr. Turbanov said yesterday, the DIA proposes to reduce the insurance premium rate in the second half of the year from 0.15 to 0.13% per month of the total volume of attracted deposits. As you know, during the February hearings in the State Duma, representatives of the DIA, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank told deputies about the need to reduce the financial burden on banks. In response, parliamentarians proposed first raising the amount of insurance compensation for depositors to 400 thousand rubles. Bankers reacted very restrainedly to the initiatives of both sides. The financiers interviewed by the newspaper said that an increase in the insurance amount will not affect the growth of public confidence in banks, and such a slight reduction in the insurance premium will not significantly ease the financial burden of credit institutions.
Alexander Turbanov agrees with the bankers that the proposed rate reduction is too small, but it “will give a signal to the market and the banking system about a tendency to reduce the size of the insurance premium, and banks that conduct long-term planning will be able to take this factor into account, which is very important.” Increasing the amount of insurance compensation to 400 thousand rubles. will increase the number of depositors whose deposits are fully subject to the new requirements of the law by another 1.6 million people.
However, despite the increase in the amount of deposit coverage, not all depositors come to collect their money. According to the agency, last year about 80% of private clients of bankrupt banks did not withdraw their funds. As a rule, these were small amounts, no more than a thousand rubles on each deposit. In total, this amounted to more than 7 million rubles. The total amount of DIA obligations to depositors last year amounted to 37 million rubles, and the size of the insurance fund exceeded 41 billion. The total volume of household deposits in Russian banks last year amounted to 3.8 trillion rubles, which is 38.2% more than in 2005 year. This year, the DIA expects the same growth rate in the volume of private deposits in banks. As the deputy general director of the agency Andrei Melnikov said, over the year the influx of funds from the population could amount to from 1 to 1.3 trillion rubles, that is, by the end of the year they will be equal to about 5 trillion rubles.
Sberbank's share of total private bank deposits, which stood at 53.4% last year, is unlikely to change significantly. According to Mr. Melnikov, Moscow banks attract funds from the population more actively than regional ones: in the former, the growth rate of deposits was 65.9%, in the latter - only 39.1%. Banks with foreign participation succeeded in this - the volume of deposits there increased by 69.3%. However, this happened not because of the aggressive policy of Western subsidiaries, but in connection with their acquisition of Russian banks.