The participants discussed additional measures to support bank lending of priority economic sectors and regions of the Russian Federation and to ensure the banking sector’s systemic stability.
Excerpts from Dmitry Medvedev’s opening remarks:
Meeting on the state of the banking system
The Bank of Russia’s Board of Directors has just finished its meeting, during which it made the important decision to reduce its primary interest rate to 14 percent. This should make loans more accessible in different areas of the economy.
We adopted several decisions that allowed us to consolidate the general stability of the banking system. Let me remind you that we doubled the size of the insurance payout on deposits. Now, bank clients can rely on the return of 1.4 million roubles rather than 700 thousand as before, if their bank’s licence is revoked.
We also elaborated a system of measures to prevent the bankruptcy of banks by assisting those with liquidity problems.
Revenues from interest on deposits will no longer be taxed if they do not exceed the refinancing rate by 10 percent, as opposed to five percent, as was the case earlier.
We also allowed the National Wealth Fund to put up to 10 percent of its money in junior bonds of Russian banks.
All of these measures have made the market more reliable and stable and retained people’s confidence in banks.
Meeting on the state of the banking system
During previous meetings, we discussed the increase of capitalisation, notably an asset contribution of up to 1 trillion roubles in the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). These funds were supposed to be in federal loan bonds placed in the junior obligations of banks. The relevant laws have been adopted; the Government has issued the relevant acts; the DIA Board of Directors has endorsed the procedure and terms for making such asset contributions and I approved a list of 27 banks that meet the established requirements. They have received proposals on capital top-ups.
Quite recently, the DIA made the decision to sign contracts with the first four banks and it intends to continue this work.
Needless to say, in the first place, support will be provided to banks that are actively lending money to the real economy, industry and agriculture. Our goal is to facilitate access to loans for those enterprises that work in priority areas.
