Not a penny more

The amount of insurance coverage for deposits will not increase until 2010

Until 2010, Russians will have to be content with government guarantees for bank deposits in the amount of up to 400 thousand rubles. As Alexander Turbanov, general director of the Deposit Insurance Agency, said at a press conference yesterday, his agency does not plan to increase the amount of compensation for three years. But banks that keep deposits from the public may already at the beginning of next year have the right to contribute less money to the insurance fund and will save millions of dollars annually.

As Mr. Turbanov said yesterday, the current amount of insurance compensation on deposits is sufficient for the system to continue to function successfully. With an increase in the amount of insurance to 400 thousand rubles. (the decision on this will come into force on April 26), the share of citizens whose savings will be maximally protected will increase from 88 to 95%. During the discussion in the State Duma of the amount of insurance coverage, a number of deputies, in particular the head of the banking committee Vladislav Reznik and his deputy Anatoly Aksakov, spoke in favor of further increasing the amount of state guarantees. The deputies proposed to return again to the topic of increasing the amount of coverage at the end of this year. The same issue was discussed in the DIA. Mr. Turbanov stated: “The Board of Directors, when deciding on the amount of compensation, is guided by the GDP per capita indicator. Amount 400 thousand rubles. corresponds to two shares of GDP per capita and is the largest among developing countries.” The State Duma, however, has a different opinion. As Mr. Reznik told Vremya Novostey, “calculation based on GDP is far from the only indicator for making such a decision, and if the share of citizens whose bank savings are maximally protected falls below 90%, then the State Duma will definitely initiate amendments to the law and will increase the amount of insurance coverage.”

When assessing the possibility of reducing quarterly payments to banks, the DIA was guided not by GDP, but by the size of the insurance fund. Now it exceeds 40 billion rubles. -- this amount seemed to the agency to be quite enough for current payments for insured events. Therefore, the board of directors of the DIA in March adopted a decision according to which banks are required to deduct 0.13% of the total volume of deposits once a quarter (previously it was 0.15%). The agency calculated that reducing the rate by just two basis points would allow banks to save $0.5-$1 million annually. Sberbank, which accumulates more than half of all private deposits, will as a result avoid paying about $570 million to the insurance fund. ( 1.5 billion rubles). In the third quarter, the DIA may decide to further reduce the rate. Accordingly, next year banks will pay even less and save even more. Mr. Turbanov did not specify how much the amount of contributions would be reduced, but cited the example of developed European countries, where credit institutions pay only 0.1% of the total volume of deposits. “We need to strive for this indicator,” said Mr. Turbanov.

Although the size of the insurance fund suits the DIA, the agency is not too happy with how these funds are managed. Last year, 10% of the fund’s assets were transferred to trust management by eight companies (200 million rubles each). Aton Management earned the most (33.5% per annum); on average, the amount of income received by management companies was 18% per annum, and taking into account commission fees, only 16.5% per annum. The agency was not very happy with these results, so the DIA does not exclude the possibility that next time it will entrust its funds to other companies. A decision on this will be made in May. However, it is already known that the agency will transfer another 300 million rubles for management to Aton.

Natalia ROMANOVA