The Government of the Russian Federation will speed up the mergers and acquisitions of banks

The Government of the Russian Federation plans to adopt amendments to the legislation in the near future to simplify the mergers and acquisitions of banks, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stanislav Voskresensky said at a conference of the Russian Business Association. His words are given by RIA Novosti .

“In the near future we will greatly simplify and accelerate the process of merging and acquisition of banks,” said Voskresensky, explaining that this is done in connection with the global financial crisis.

- Bankers are looking for protection from deputies from the head of the Central Bank

Now the procedure for acquiring one bank of the other takes 1-1.5 years. “Now it is clear that such a situation is unacceptable and it must be changed,” the deputy minister said.

To accelerate the process of absorptions in the banking system, it is planned to amend a number of regulations, including the law on banks and banking, said Voskresensky in an interview with reporters.

Speaking at the conference, he also recalled that by the end of December, it is planned to adopt all the basic laws on the development of financial markets, including tax innovations in this area and mechanisms for creating in Russia, first of the regional and then the International Financial Center.

Bankers are looking for protection from deputies from the head of the Central Bank

On November 18, the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market plans to consider bills on a phased increase in requirements for the minimum capital and simplifying the mergers and acquisitions of legal entities. According to the authors of the bills, the possible departure of small banks from the market in 2010-2012 due to the lack of resources to increase capital will become an incentive for their reorganization by merging. However, leading banking associations are sure that these amendments are working against the interests of the Russian economy, writes RBC Daily .

State Duma deputies Vladislav Reznik, Anatoly Koval, Yuri Isaev and Lyudmila Pepelyaeva prepared a number of amendments to the Law "On Banks and Banking", which are aimed at increasing the capitalization of the banking sector, including through the merger and acquisition of credit organizations. So, if the capital of a credit institution as of January 1, 2007 amounted to less than 90 million rubles, it will be obliged to increase it by 2010 to 90 million rubles and two more years later - up to 180 million rubles. If the bank’s capital on January 1, 2007 was estimated above 90 million rubles, but less than 180 million rubles, it will be obliged to bring this indicator to 180 million rubles also by 2012.

The proposed measures will serve as an incentive for the reorganization of banks that do not have resources to increase their own funds, as well as leaving the markets that have no development prospects, the authors of the bill believes.

At the same time, it is proposed to significantly simplify the merger and acquisition of legal entities, including credit organizations. If these amendments are adopted, the principle of unconditional protection of creditors during the reorganization of legal entities will be canceled. The validity of the claims of creditors will be evaluated in court. Moreover, the court will have the opportunity to refuse to satisfy such requirements if the successors of the reorganized organization prove that as a result of a merger or acquisition, there is no danger of improper fulfillment of debt obligations.

Meanwhile, the President of the Association of Russian Banks Garen Tosunyan and the head of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia Anatoly Aksakov are sure that increasing the requirements for the minimum capital of capital "actually works against the interests of the Russian economy" and will lead to the displacement of the market more than three hundred credit organizations. In connection with which yesterday, the heads of associations sent a joint letter addressed to the chairman of the Bank of Russia Sergei Ignatiev with a request to support the position of the banking community. According to Garegin Tosunyan and Anatoly Aksakov, the emphasis should be placed on simplifying the merger and acquisition of banks that will become an economic incentive for banks to increase capitalization.

According to market participants, the consolidation of the banking system will occur regardless of the increase in requirements for the minimum amount of capital and the cancellation of the principle of unconditional protection of creditors.