Well, it is the only real macho bank stuffed full of real money waiting to be spewed out into the world. :) The rest are more of articifial receptacle banks.
Russia has thousands of little pocket "banks." Sperbank, Alfa Bank and CitiBank are the only "real" ones, as far as I know. (Not meaning to pretend to be an expert on the Russian banking sector.) Cutting down the number of "banks" and increasingly the availability of loans is a reform repeated called for by the government, but not yet implemented much. One problem in the Russian economy is that it is virtually impossible for people in the "middle class" to get loans, because then they would have to disclose their full incomes... which most people earn in the shadow economy off the books. So they can't get loans for starting small businesses and whatnot. --- "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > lemme guess, Spebank is a sperm bank? > ;-) > > Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > > ________________________________ > > From: PEN-L list on behalf of Chris Doss > Sent: Tue 7/13/2004 2:50 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Russia Steps in to Aid Banking > Crisis > > > > I think calling this a "banking crisis" is overdoing > it. Almost none of these "banks" are much more than > laundrettes, and few Russians have bank accounts > anyway -- they keep their saving in cash. When > something happens to Sperbank, I'll start worrying. > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We > finish. > http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
