The DIA declared it untimely to raise deposit insurance

The rules of the game are changing again in the Russian deposit insurance system. The introduction of increased contributions to the Deposit Insurance Fund for banks that inflate deposit rates may be canceled; instead, banks that violate standards may be forced to pay more. And the increase in insurance compensation for deposits to 1 million rubles, which was discussed since last year, is now also in question.

Photo: Nikolay Tsyganov, Kommersant / buy photo

The fact that the mechanism proposed by the Ministry of Finance for compensating for banking risks associated with increasing insurance compensation on deposits up to 1 million rubles is no longer supported by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA), DIA General Director Yuri Isaev said on Friday. “The system proposed by the Ministry of Finance is not ideal,” he said. “It is far-fetched to tie increasing coefficients to the level of rates; this is an attempt to replace the real strategy for the development of the deposit insurance system with the solution of immediate problems. I would not like to waste my time on this.”

Increase the insurance amount for bank deposits to 1 million rubles. proposed in the middle of last year by former DIA director Alexander Turbanov (he was replaced in this post by Yuri Isaev on December 25). However, during the development of a bill implementing this idea, it was also decided to reform the system of contributions to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF). Now the rate of contributions to it is the same for all banks and amounts to 0.1% of the volume of deposits; according to the bill, the rate is proposed to be differentiated.

According to the project, if a bank offers rates on deposits that exceed the arithmetic average of the maximum rates of banks, which account for two-thirds of deposits, by 2 percentage points, then its contributions to the Fund increase by 40%; if by 3 percentage points or more - by 200%. The purpose of introducing differentiated rate contributions to the Fund for Banks is to compensate for the risks of deposits flowing to banks that have an overly aggressive policy and offer higher rates.

A supporter of this approach was Sberbank President German Gref. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) opposed this idea. According to the FAS, this approach puts banks in an unequal position and may lead to restriction of competition. The antimonopoly department considered it more logical to link the rate of deduction of contributions to the Fund to the economic situation of the bank (see Kommersant on December 18), assessing the latter, in particular, by its compliance with basic mandatory standards (capital adequacy and liquidity, see Kommersant from February 6). Now the Deposit Insurance Agency, the fund manager, has joined this opinion. Following the logic of the law on deposit insurance, Mr. Isaev pointed out, increased contribution rates to the FSV should be established for those players who repeatedly, over a certain period of time, commit violations of mandatory standards or receive any instructions from the Central Bank. According to him, the agency will provide more specific proposals within two to three weeks.

At the same time, there is no need to rush to increase insurance compensation, Mr. Isaev believes. “I don’t have an internal feeling that now the amount of insurance coverage needs to be increased to 1 million rubles,” he said on Friday. According to Kommersant sources close to the government, the DIA changed its position after a government meeting held in early March. “The adoption of the law in its current form was opposed by the state legal and expert departments of the president, who sent negative reviews of the project,” said Kommersant’s interlocutor. “In general, their arguments repeated the arguments of the antimonopoly service, and following the meeting, the Ministry of Finance was instructed to listen to criticize and finalize the project." “Of course, we need to wait for more specific proposals from the DIA,” says Olga Sergeeva, head of the financial markets control department of the FAS, “but in advance I can say that this approach is more logical.”

Linking the rates of banks' contributions to the FSV with the economic situation of banks is one of the principles of the international association of insurers, and in general the desire for full compliance with them is correct, points out Kommersant's interlocutor close to the Bank of Russia. However, he continues, we should not forget: for such a link to work effectively, it is necessary to first improve at least the legal framework - at least in terms of increasing the reliability of bank reporting. “As long as this is not the case, using assessments of the economic situation of banks to establish the amount of contributions to the FSF is hardly justified, because in fact, sanctions (and an increase in the rate of contributions can be considered a sanction) will affect those who conscientiously reflect their economic situation in their reporting,” concludes Kommersant’s interlocutor ".

“I proceed from the fact that we will not be able to create anything that really works in this area if we do not trust the reporting that banks provide,” says Yuri Isaev. “In fact, this is a dead end. I am ready to agree with the opinion that We don’t have very transparent reporting, so we can’t introduce a system like in the USA or Canada, where a multifactor model works that takes into account various ratings, the motivated judgment of the regulator and many other factors. But if you don’t aim for such scientific heights, you can think about it. “What comrades did in economies similar to ours: there is a base rate, and there are additional coefficients that increase the rate to the insurance fund for violation of standards.”

Bankers are happy to be able to keep deposit rates high. “For large retail banks, such an approach (linking contributions to the FSV to the standards. - Kommersant ) would be much more profitable than the previous option,” says Vladimir Gasyak, Deputy Chairman of the Board of HKF Bank. “Such banks, as a rule, have the opportunity to offer high rates on deposits and practically do not violate standards." “This approach, of course, is more profitable, but it raises questions,” adds Grigory Vartsibasov, a member of the board of Trust Bank. “After all, by and large, if a bank violates regulations, its license should be revoked, and not prohibit high income on deposits.” “Our position on this issue has not changed,” Bella Zlatkis, deputy chairman of Sberbank, told Kommersant. “The contribution rate to the fund should be tied to the risks that the bank bears. Inflated deposit rates are an objective indicator that clearly shows how risky the bank’s policy is.” ".

Alexandra Bayazitova, Svetlana Dementieva

Cancellation for a million