TOP NEWS; CBR approves plan for its participation in Trust Bank, Rost Bank bailouts

MOSCOW. March 15 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has approved a plan for its participation in measures to prevent the bankruptcy of Trust Bank and Rost Bank, with the regulator\u27s Banking Sector Consolidation Fund (BSCF) appointed as the temporary administration at these banks as of Thursday. Both banks will be recapitalized in the near future, an Otkritie Bank Financial Corporation spokesman told Interfax, adding that the involvement of the BSCF implies the CBR will be leading the bailout process. Elsewhere, the CBR has revoked the licenses of Rostov-based Credit Express Bank and Belgorod-based Velton Bank. In the Russian banking sector as a whole, the money provided bail out B&N Bank resulted in a small inflow of liquidity in the first half of March, the CBR said. Meanwhile, the cost of the bailout of Peresvet Bank could reach 99.8 billion rubles, far more than the figure that the CBR initially gave, the Deposit Insurance Agency\u27s (DIA) annual report shows. Trust, Ros

CBR to invite consultants for sale of Otkritie in early 2020, seeks to sell bailed-out banks to private entities - Nabiullina

MOSCOW. Dec 25 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is planning to hire investment consultants to prepare the sale of the Otkritie Group, which is planned for 2021, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said in an interview with Interfax. Early next year, we will invite investment consultants, who will help us settle on a strategy for the CBR to withdraw from the capital of Otkritie Group: as far as the timeline of the sale, the means of the sale, how to sell - as the group or in separate segments, Nabiullina said

Otkritie shareholders themselves requested BSCF financial rescue - Tulin

MOSCOW. Aug 29 (Interfax) - The owners of Otkritie Bank Financial Corporation (MOEX: OFCB) themselves asked the Central Bank to step in with a financial rescue using the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund (BSCF) mechanism, Central Bank First Deputy Governor Dmitry Tulin told journalists. The bank\u27s capital was inadequate for the risks assumed, he said

Aven skeptical about prospects of Otkritie sale: we have another long-term state bank

MOSCOW. Dec 23 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) will not be able to sell Otkritie Bank (MOEX: OPEN) in the foreseeable future, and it will become another large quasi-state player in the market, where the state share is already too large, board chairman and co-owner of Alfa-Bank Petr Aven told RBC in an interview

RUSSIAN BANKS; Otkritie reduces equity to 1 ruble

MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia\u27s (CBR) Corporate Relations Department on Thursday registered a report on share issue by Otkritie FC Bank which reduced the bank\u27s equity to 1 ruble, the regulator said. Equity was reduced by lowering the par value of ordinary and preferred shares

Government Banking in Russia: Magnitude and New Features

State-controlled banks are currently at the core of financial intermediation in Russia. This paper aims to assess the magnitude of government banking, and to reveal some of its special features and arrangements. We distinguish between directly and indirectly state-controlled banks and construct a set of bank-level statistical data covering the period between 2000 and 2011. By January 2011 the market share of state-controlled banks reached almost 54 percent of all bank assets, putting Russia in the same league with China and India and widening the gap from typical European emerging markets. We show that direct state ownership is gradually substituted by indirect ownership and control. It tends to be organized in corporate pyramids that dilute public property, take control away from government bodies, and underpin managerial opportunism. Statecontrolled banks blur the borderline between commercial banking and development banking. Dominance of public banks has a bearing on empirical studies whose results might suggest state-owned banks' greater (or lesser) efficiency or competitiveness compared to other forms of ownership. We tend to interpret such results as influenced by the choice of indicator, period of observations, sample selection, etc., in the absence of an equal playing field for all groups of players. We suggest that the government's planned retreat from the banking sector will involve non-core assets mainly, whereas control over core institutions will just become more subtle.Staatlich kontrollierte Banken bilden den Kern der finanziellen Intermediation in Russland. Dieses Diskussionspapier zielt darauf ab, das Ausmaß der staatlichen Bankaktivitäten zu beurteilen und einige Besonderheiten sowie die aktuellen Regelungen aufzuzeigen. Wir unterscheiden zwischen direkt und indirekt kontrollierten Banken und konstruieren aus den für den Bankensektor spezifischen Daten einen Datensatz für die Periode von 2000 bis 2011. Danach erreichte der Marktanteil staatlich kontrollierter Banken im Januar 2011 fast 54 % der Aktiva des gesamten Bankensektors. Damit findet sich Russland in einer Liga mit China und Indien wieder, während sich die Kluft zu den europäischen emerging markets vergrößerte. Wir zeigen, dass das direkte staatliche Eigentum allmählich durch indirekte Eigentumsformen und Kontrollen ersetzt wird. Damit verwischen staatlich kontrollierte Banken auch die Grenze zwischen Geschäfts- und Entwicklungsbanken. Die Dominanz der staatlichen Kontrolle hat auch einen Einfluss auf empirische Studien, deren Ergebnisse darauf hindeuten, dass eine staatseigene Bank im Vergleich zu anderen Formen des Bankeneigentums eine höhere (oder niedrigere) Effizienz und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit aufweist. Aufgrund einer fehlenden Vergleichsgruppe mit gleichen Wettbewerbsbedingungen für alle Gruppen von Spielern interpretieren wir diese Ergebnisse als beeinflusst durch die Wahl des Indikators, des Zeitraums der Beobachtungen sowie durch die Stichprobenauswahl. Schließlich wird deutlich, dass der von der Regierung geplante Rückzug aus dem Bankensektor im Wesentlichen die nicht zum Kerngeschäft gehörenden Vermögenswerte betreffen wird, während die Kontrolle der Kern-Institutionen nur subtilere Formen annehmen wird