Rosbank Offers Uncompetitive Interest
Rosbank lowered its interest rates on all ruble accounts available to the public by 1 percent at the end of last week, leaving its rates uncompetitive. Since VIP client Mikhail Prokhorov deposited 67.3 billion rubles in the bank, it has interest in humbler clients. The top interest rate Rosbank now offers on ruble is 9 percent, on deposits with a maximum term of one year. On two-year deposits, a client may receive 8.5 percent. Even conservative state banks offer higher rates than that. VTB offers 10.5-11 percent interest, and Sberbank offers 8.5-9.5 percent. Moreover, since credit has become harder to obtain overseas, Russian banks have been trying to shore up their credit base in the last six months.
The Rosbank press service attributed the lowering of the interest rates to “optimization of crediting structures,” thanks to Prokhorov’s deposit. According to a report published Friday, the bank opened five accounts, with terms ranging from six months to two years, for its former shareholder in May. They contained 134.9 billion rubles ($5.66 billion), which is the same amount Prokhorov received from the sale of his 50-percent share in ZAO KM Invest to co-owner Vladimir Potanin. Prokhorov took 67.5 billion ($2.7 billion) rubles away from the bank four days later, leaving 67.3 billion rubles.
Rosbank, which, as of April 1 of this year, occupied tenth place among Russian banks by volume of net assets (373.4 billion rubles) and 11th place by size of its own capital (38.5 billion rubles), is controlled by Societe General. Another 38.4 percent of the stock in the bank is controlled by Potanin’s Interros, after the division of assets between Prokhorov and Potanin.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 18, 2008
|
