Markets await Russian report BANKING:
ByLine: By ANDREW JACK and PAIVI MUNTER
The Russian financial markets are braced for the publication this morning of
Central Bank reserves figures that will indicate whether there has been any
run on deposits by retail customers that could trigger problems for the
country's shaken banking sector.
One government official said there was "no sign of a public
psychosis" among depositors, after a sharp rise in inter-bank lending
rates this week on concerns of a crackdown in the banking sector after the
first closure of afinancial institution over new money-laundering
regulations.
Last month, the Central Bank shut down Sodbiznesbank, a small retail
institution. This was seen as the beginning of a wider clean-up of
Russia's fragile banking sector.
The concerns precede the publication of new regulations on Friday next week,
expected to contain plans for a new deposit insurance system, which currently
only covers dominant state-owned banks. Such a system would require a
restructuring of the banking system.
Although analysts welcomed any efforts by the Central Bank to close shady
banks, Russia's record of opaque governance has given rise to rumours
about rash bank closures. The talk has this week closed off credit access to
many small banks, although some market participants believe larger
institutions could also be under threat from central bank probes.
An Alfa Bank note said the markets would be closely watching the status of
Guta Bank, although others said there were no clear signs of Guta's
position weakening, and pointed out that it competed with Alfa in the
expanding retail services sector. Guta was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Andrew Keeley, banking analyst at Moscow-based Renaissance Capital, said:
"There is an actual lack of credit to certain banks. Lending among the
biggest banks has been much less impacted but they are only lending to
smaller banks against collateral."
Separately, US Eximbank said it was in talks to restructure its Dollars
14m-Dollars 18m exposure to Russia's KreditTrust.
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