The Central Bank is winding down temporary measures to support banks

Compensation for losses incurred by large banks from interbank lending at the expense of the Central Bank will be completely stopped by the new year. The Central Bank will begin reducing compensation limits for unrepaid interbank loans on June 1. After reducing the limits on unsecured loans and the terms of collateralized lending, this is the third step of the Central Bank to wind down anti-crisis support.

The receipt of a letter from the Bank of Russia warning about the curtailment of such a state support measure as compensation for losses on interbank loans was confirmed to Kommersant by several large banks at once. “We received a letter from the Central Bank about reducing the limits on compensation transactions on the interbank market by 25% of the current values from June 1,” Nikolai Karpushkin, head of Alfa Bank’s monetary operations department, told Kommersant. “In the future, two more stages of limit reduction are planned.” Transcreditbank also confirmed receipt of the letter from the regulator. According to Transcreditbank Treasury Director Dmitry Orlov, the bank will most likely respond to the Central Bank’s letter by proportionally reducing the limits on compensable transactions for smaller counterparty banks.

Second-tier banks are already aware of the reduction in their ability to access the interbank market. “Large banks that had limits set for us, compensated by the Central Bank, have already notified us of their impending reduction,” Vladimir Chubar, deputy chairman of the board of the Moscow Credit Bank, told Kommersant. “We received letters from several large banks lending to us on the interbank market that the compensation mechanism as an anti-crisis measure will be completely phased out by the beginning of 2011,” confirmed Loko-Bank board member Pavel Voznesensky.

The Central Bank received the right to conclude agreements with large banks on compensation for losses on interbank loans issued to smaller banks on October 14, 2008. This anti-crisis measure is valid until December 31, 2010. In order to receive compensation from the Central Bank (in the event of revocation of licenses from counterparties on the interbank market), large banks (with high ratings and capital of at least 20 billion rubles) entered into special agreements with the regulator. As of May 1, such agreements were concluded with the Central Bank by 18 banks, thanks to which 374 medium and small banks have access to the interbank market.

The Central Bank is systematically winding down its anti-crisis support mechanisms for banks. The reduction in the volume of compensation for interbank loans followed a reduction in the terms of direct secured lending to banks and a reduction in the limits on unsecured loans from the Central Bank to banks (by 10% from May 1).

Assessments of these actions by banks, both large and small, are ambiguous. “Reducing compensation limits is a timely measure, since there is currently no problem with liquidity in the Russian banking system,” says Nikolai Karpushkin. “The volume of bank deposits with the Central Bank reaches 900 billion rubles, so it is necessary to smoothly switch to market methods of risk assessment.” . “We do not expect problems with liquidity to arise due to the winding down of the compensation mechanism on the interbank market,” agrees Mr. Chubar. “Medium-sized banks still have collateralized lending from the Central Bank, but small banks did not have access to compensated transactions anyway.”

However, there is another point of view. “In conditions of instability in international markets, it is premature to curtail this type of state support for the bank,” says Pavel Voznesensky. “If this wave reaches Russia, then medium-sized and small banks risk facing a liquidity shortage, since the mechanism for redistributing funds from large to small banks without a compensation bridge It’s not fully working yet.” “Our demand from medium-sized banks for compensated transactions on the interbank market is small, but given that this measure of state support is being phased out throughout the system, the negative consequences for small banks can be noticeable,” agrees Dmitry Orlov. “The risks from bank balance sheets have not gone away. , and, having closed the limits on compensable transactions, large banks are unlikely to switch to issuing blank loans." A decrease in supply in the interbank market for small banks may lead to an increase in rates for them, he summarizes.

The Central Bank could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Svetlana Dementieva

The crisis limit has been reached