Finance Ministry allow 28 Russian banks to deposit budgetary assets

The Russian Finance Ministry has made a decision to extend the list of banks that can bid in auctions to deposit budgetary funds, the ministry said in a statement obtained by Interfax on September 21.

“The Russian Finance Ministry, at an agreement with the Central Bank, made a decision to provide a possibility to bid in auctions for signing three-month deposit agreements with the Federal Treasury not only to Russia’s three largest banks: Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank,” the statement reads.

Twenty-five more banks, or all credit organizations that meet the criteria of bidding in such auctions, will from now on have such an opportunity.

It was reported earlier that banks will be offered to deposit 600 billion rubles at no less than 8.75% per year at the first auction slated for September 22.

They all have long-term credit ratings no lower than “BB-” (Standard & Poor’s and Fitch) or “Ba3” (Moody’s), and are all among the 50 biggest Russian banks, according to rankings prepared by the Interfax-Center for Economic Analysis.

The overall limit on budget funds that can be held on bank deposits is 1.5142 trillion rubles, including 754.2 billion rubles in Sberbank, 268.5 billion in VTB and 103.9 billion in Gazprombank.

The list of banks allowed to bid in auctions for budgetary funds include: Absolut Bank, Ak Bars, Alfa Bank, VTB, VTB-24, VTB North-West, Gazprombank, Eurofinance Mosnarbank, Bank Zenit, Credit Europe Bank, MDM Bank, Bank of Moscow, NOMOS-BANK, Orgresbank, OTP Bank, Bank Petrokommerce, Promsvyazbank, Raiffeisenbank, Rosbank, Rosselkhozbank, Russian Standard Bank, Bank St. Petersburg, Sberbank Russia, Transcreditbank, Uralsib, URSA Bank, Khanty-Mansiisk Bank, UniCredit Bank.