Duma official on insuring banking deposits

The Russian President's interest to the bill on insuring banking deposits allows for the hope of its adoption by the State Duma in May 2003, Pavel Medvedev, the deputy head of the State Duma Banking Committee, declared at a press conference today. According to the deputy, in the current variant of the bill there are three rather "provocative" points. The first problem is the elimination of state guarantees to depositors in Sberbank as of January 1, 2007; the second problem concerns payments to an insurance fund, which is to be common for depositors in Sberbank and commercial banks.

According to Medvedev, it would be unfair if Sberbank depositors (about 90 percent of the total number of depositors in Russia) "provide guarantees" to the other 10 percent of depositors in commercial banks. State guarantees should be canceled only after Sberbank's depositors amount to less than 10-15 percent of the total number of depositors.

The third problem, according to the deputy, is the examination of a bank's reliability. He believes that about 80 percent of Russian commercial banks have a positive reputation and they may be subjected to a milder examination.