State companies will be allowed to place funds only in specially approved banks

The Ministry of Finance of the RF has prepared amendments focused on the strengthening of requirements to banks, in which the companies with state participation are allowed to place their funds. As of today it is enough, if a bank has the credit rating not below BB- from the international rating agencies Fitch, Standard & Pooor`s and Moody`s. The assessments of Russian rating agencies were also considered, such as «NRA» (minimum rating AAA), «AKM» and «Ekspert RA» (minimum rating A++) and «Rusreiting» (minimum rating A-).

The experts note, that, although the rating of a bank directly testifies to its financial strength, last recalls of banking licenses is evidence that even a bank formally meeting accepted criteria can occur at risk. So that, the loss of 1,5 bln RUB by the Fund of assistance to reforming of housing and communal services, invested in Investbank, which was revoked a license, has given an impulse to the strengthening of selection criteria.

According to new rules, to the already existing criterion it is added the necessity of being in the list of systemically important banks, establishing by the Central Bank of the RF. Within assessment, based on the first criterion (agencies’ rating), 27 credit institutions have an access to the auction. However, the introduction of a new criterion can significantly shorten their number, but the list of socially important banks is not released to the public.

Information agency Credinform is preparing to issue own bank financial strength index, which will help the users estimate how reliable is a credit institution.