Re: Russia Steps in to Aid Banking Crisis
I don't know -- I'm not a banking expert. I actually had an account at Guta for awhile. But Guta is just not a household name. When I was working for the Russia Journal, we practically never wrote on Guta. --- sartesian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I think Chris Doss's remarks on Russian banking worries (and I think they are in the worry, not crisis,category) are a little too non-chalant.. The Guta bank is/was/had been considered one of the sounder banks in the Russian financial network, with higher quality loans/assets to better performing Russian businesses. __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Re: 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
Re: Russia Steps in to Aid Banking Crisis
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
Re: Russia Steps in to Aid Banking Crisis
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
Re: Russia Steps in to Aid Banking Crisis
I think Chris Doss's remarks on Russian banking worries (and I think they are in the worry, not crisis,category) are a little too non-chalant.. The Guta bank is/was/had been considered one of the sounder banks in the Russian financial network, with higher quality loans/assets to better performing Russian businesses. So its closing to prevent depositor runs, the interruption of electronic transfers, etc. is of significance to the international financial network which wants to conduct its business through legitimized, capitalized institutions. Also, Russian bank business loans measure out at about 21 percent of annual GDP, nowhere near Thailand's 75% but right in line with Indonesia's measure, which almost says it all. OAO Sherbank (at least that's how I read the name) has about 50% of all deposits and 25% of all assets in the Russian banking system.
Russia Steps in to Aid Banking Crisis
Russia Steps in to Aid Banking Crisis Mon Jul 12,11:06 AM ET By ALEX NICHOLSON, Associated Press Writer MOSCOW - After last week's run on one of Russia's biggest private banks and the near-collapse of a second, the Russian parliament and Central Bank stepped in to calm frightened depositors, a move that analysts said Monday was long overdue. Alfa Bank Russia's fifth largest by assets paid out some $200 million in just three days, while Guta Bank was forced to temporarily shut down its operations last week after clients withdrew $344 million in June. Already shaken by rumors that the Central Bank would review licenses as part of the higher transparency requirements of the mandatory deposit insurance system, the Central Bank's decision in May to pull the license of medium-sized Sodbiznesbank on allegations of money laundering set off panic throughout the sector. A sister bank of Sodbiznesbank soon collapsed. Bank managers circulated lists of suspect partners and stopped lending to one another leaving banks without vital liquidity. Over the weekend, Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, whisked through emergency legislation guaranteeing deposits in failed banks of up to $3,350. The law, when it comes into effect in mid-August, will allow Sodbiznesbank depositors to get their money back since it is retroactive from December 2003. In addition, the Central Bank slashed mandatory reserve requirements last week, which is expected to give banks a cash injection of about $4.5 billion, which should be felt in the coming days. Peter Westin, chief economist at the Aton investment bank, said the government's involvement was a case of better late than never, but came after years of inaction in a sector where one-third of the banks have less than the 1 million euros charter capital required by law. How long the current problems would continue will depend on how depositors react to the new legislation and their sensitivity to rumors of doom and gloom on the market, Westin said. I hope this week will be decisive, said Pavel Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Duma's committee for credit organizations and financial markets. People will start to realize that they are protected. On Friday, state-owned Vneshtorgbank announced it would buy out Guta and use a $700 million credit line provided by the Central Bank to get it up and running in a week. Jilted depositors filled out paperwork Monday at Guta's branches to retrieve their savings. Payments should begin Thursday, Russia's NTV television reported. Meanwhile, Alfa Bank, which is still smarting from front-page coverage of a run on several of its branches, said that it had earmarked some $700 million to absorb the panic. Deputy CEO Andrei Kosogov slammed a media feeding-frenzy that he said had spurred the panic, promising a swift legal response. Economists and senior government officials have argued that there are no economic reasons for a repeat of the August 1998 banking crisis, when millions of ordinary Russian's lost their savings in the financial meltdown. But old wounds were soon reopened as media gave broad play to the crisis. The ones who took out their money were people with smaller savings, they rely on the media for their information, said Alfa Bank's Kosogov. The ones with more cash ask a few questions, make a few phone calls and calm down.
