Banking in Russia: Shadows of the past

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 43, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 49-59

  Johnson, Juliet ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0040201861     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10758216.1996.11655679     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Viacheslav Zakharov, vice president of the Association of Russian Banks, summed up the problem when he wrote that "Viktor Gerashchenko [former CBR head] . . . continually emphasizes that they cannot allow the fall of production. They understand that it's important to fight against inflation, but at the same time they can't allow the fall of production. So, I think they're chasing after two rabbits and still haven't caught either one of them." Association of Russian Banks, Informatsionnyi biulleten' 4 (1994): 12.
2. Remarks of Tatiana Paramonova, former acting CBR head, at the Plenary Session of the Russian-American Bankers' Forum, June 30, 1995, St. Petersburg, Russia.
3. Ivan Zhagel, "We're Not Going to Rescind the Central Bank's Telegram," Izvestiia (August 4, 1992).
4. Survey by Cassandra research service. Results reported in the ARB Informatsionnyi biulleten' 6 (1994).
5. World Bank, Russia: The Banking System in the Transition, 1993, p. 4.
6. Ibid., p. 7.
7. Segodnia (March 16, 1993).
8. Interview with Vladimir Kolesnikov, Executive Assistant to the President, Dialog Bank, February 15, 1995, Moscow.
9. Interview with Liudmila Khrutova, assistant director of the Stankobank, February 28, 1995, Riazan.
10. Peter Derby, "The Transformation of Russia's Banking System," Economic Reform Today 1 (1995): 15.
11. Remarks of A. Kozlov at the Russian-American Bankers' Forum, July 30, 1995.
12. Interview with Garegin Tosunian, president of Technobank, July 14, 1995, Moscow.
13. After the breakup of the USSR, Vneshtorgbank Russia took over almost all of the functions of Vneshekonombank, leaving the latter functioning only in order to service the USSR's foreign debt.
14. The figure 750 appears in the "Report to the Russian-American Banker's Forum on Technical Assistance to the Russian Financial System," June 21, 1992, p. 2. In August 1990, right before this process began, there were only 433 commercial banks registered in Russia. As of January 1994, because of bank consolidation, only 624 of the 2,019 total banks then registered had been created on the basis of the spetsbanks. Vestnik banka Rossii 1 (February 16, 1994).
15. It also led to severe cash shortages, in part because by this time pocket banks and enterprises had become adept at the art of turning these credits into cash money. Some ex-republics soon began to circulate their own quasi-currencies alongside the ruble in order to deal with the cash shortage. These currencies (e.g., the Ukrainian coupon) often depreciated quickly against the ruble.
16. Naturally, a market in which to trade these ruble credits grew and the differential among the rates of exchange began to widen. For instance, during Ukraine's credit expansion in 1992, its credit ruble was worth only 30 percent of the Russian ruble. "The Rouble Zone: Behind the Facade," Economist (September 19, 1992): 96.
17. Andrei Illarionov, "What is the Price of Friendship?" Izvestiia (September 16, 1993).
18. Liudmila Khomutetskaia, director of Slavyanin Bank, quoted in Anna Stepanova and Vladimir Teplitskii. "Pri slaboi ekonomike ne bydet sil'nykh bankov" (In a Weak Economy There Will Not Be Strong Banks), Delovoe povol'zhe 14 (April 1994): 1.
19. Interview with Melinda Rishkofski, Deputy Director of the Harvard Institute for International Development, June 16, 1995, Moscow. Also, see statements to this effect by A. Kozlov, CBR Deputy Chairman, at the Plenary Session of the Russian-American Bankers' Forum.
20. Joel Hellman, Breaking the Bank: Bureaucrats and the Creation of Markets in a Transitional Economy, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1993, pp. 149-150.
21. Remarks of Tatiana Paramonova at the Russian-American Bankers' Forum, June 30, 1995.
22. CBR Volgograd press release, "Shto govorili na soveshchanii" (Conference Procedings), Delovoe povol'zhe 28 (July 1994): 6.
23. This remained a chief complaint of provincial bankers in statements to the acting head of the CBR, Tatiana Paramonova, at the ARB conference in May 1995.
24. Surveys by Cassandra research service, reported in the CBR publication, Monitoring bankovskoi politiki 1 (1995): 33.
25. Interview with Oleg Matveev, lead economist, Department of Licensing, CBR Riazan, September 2, 1994, Riazan.
26. Interview with Oleg Churbanov, vice president of PRIO-Vneshtorgbank, September 1, 1994, Riazan.
27. Interview with Kolesnikov, op. cit.
28. Interview with Aleksandr Turbanov, Duma deputy and member of the Committee on the Budget, Taxes, Banking, and Finance, June 29, 1995, Moscow. Turbanov is now deputy director of the CBR.
29. Interview with Tosunian, op. cit.
30. For example, the total volume of non-payments in Volgograd oblast today is 2.3 trillion rubles, while the total volume ofveksels in circulation is only 100 billion. Ivan Shabunin, administrative head of Volgograd Oblast, "Oblast' budet konkurirovat' s finansovymi kompaniiami" (Oblast Will Be Competing with Financial Companies), Delovoe povol'zhe 3 (January 1995): 1.
31. Opening remarks by Sergei Egorov at the Fifth Annual Conference of the Association of Russian Banks, May 25, 1995, Moscow.
32. Interview with Aleksei Kireev, director of the Zhivago Bank, September 1, 1994, Riazan.
33. Interview with Pavel Medvedev, Duma deputy and head of the subcommittee on banking, June 19, 1995, Moscow.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. The International Financial House, co-founded by several Moscow banks, runs continual seminars on banking activities taught by professionals from commercial banks, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Inspectorate, and others. Other big training centers are run by the Association of Russian Banks, the association of Promstroibanks "Rossiia," and the International Moscow Finance and Banking School.
37. In cooperation with Barents Group on a USAID-funded project, banks in Vladivostok and Novosibirsk have founded banking academies for the areas that bring in Western banking and finance professionals to teach courses designed in Washington, DC. The Indiana University School of Business has sponsored a long-term banker training project in Riazan.
38. Interview with Kireev, op. cit.
39. Surveys by Cassandra research service, reported in the CBR publication, Monitoring bankovskoi polititi 1 (1995): 29.
40. "J.P. Morgansky?" Economist (April 15, 1995): 68. After initial positive feedback from the government, the consortium itself broke down due to rivalry among the banks, but under continued prodding from the banks the government later adopted a similar plan - the now-infamous "shares for loans" privatization scheme.
41. Of the top five banks in amount of authorized capital, four are former spetsbanks.
42. For example, Vladimir Mazaev, the president of PRIO-Vneshtorgbank in Riazan, argues, "Statistics show that last year the population of the oblast consumed only half of its income. Where is the second half? Through the banking system it went to Moscow with those [branches of Moscow banks], in order to return in the form of credit at 210 percent a year." Quoted in Stanislav Yushkovskii, "Iskat' vmeste" (Searching Together), Priokskaia gazeta (April 8, 1994): 2.