Dance of Nymphs at the Uralsib bank corporate party. The poster reads: "Finances are simple."
Photo: Nikolay Cyiganov
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Non-Resident’s Share
Foreigners expanded large-scale in the bank sector of Russia in July to August, according to the analysts of Finam. The highlights were two in number - acquiring some small niche banks, similar to Investsberbank and Finekobank, and buying out moderate stakes (up to 15 percent) in big banks.
In line with this trend, such majors as the Bank of Moscow and Promsvyazbank drew new minority holders in the recent two months, including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Commerzbank. But the apotheosis was obviously the deal of Societe Generale on the bank market of Russia. This French bank acquired 10 percent in Russia’s seventh bank in size of the assets, Rosbank. Societe Generale that had had 10 percent in Rosbank even before the deal may benefit from the option and buy out 30 percent plus two stocks in Rosbank before late 2008.
The root cause of such agitation is not only the promising nature of the market in Russia (it was promising even a year ago). Rather the deposit rates here are nearing the rates offered in developed states. Aliens used to view our deposit market as too costly, but the rates have been curtailed as if urging non-residents to attract funds of the population. Raiffeisenbank, for instance, raised 10.6 billion rubles in the first half-year, having climbed to the second score (after Sberbank) in this indicator. It was only the fifth last year.
For bankers, openness of financial sector is crucial. Russia cannot offer the openness of great extent so far. Regardless, non-residents covered 12 percent of the country’s bank sector as of the mid.-2006 vs. 8 percent early 2005. In this indicator, Russia is far ahead of Germany (5.4 percent) or the United States (8.5 percent), but is far behind Norway (23.9 percent), Great Britain (33.9 percent) and Mexico (54.2 percent).
What’s more, well aware of the need to qualitatively improve the bank system of the country, CBR intends to facilitate procedures used by the aliens to acquire minority stakes in the banks. As a result, non-residents may expand up to 20 percent in Russia in 2008, Standard & Poor's (S&P) forecasted.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 02, 2006
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