VTB raises 85% of Finance Ministry budget deposits in Jan-Feb
MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - VTB raised 85% (413.05 billion out of 486.2 billion rubles) of the budget funds deposited by the Finance Ministry in January-February, Gazprombank analyst Yuri Tulinov said.
Taking into account the funds deposited at VTB subsidiaries (Bank of Moscow - 0.2 billion rubles in January and Transcreditbank - 2 billion rubles in February), the VTB group banks raised 415.25 billion rubles, or 85.4% of the total funds deposited.
VTB accounted for around the same share at the end of 2011 - in December they attracted 186.6 billion rubles, or 84% of the 222 billion rubles in temporarily free budget funds deposited by the ministry. VTB itself raised 124.63 billion rubles (56.1% of the total deposited by the ministry), VTB 24 - 35 billion rubles (15.8%), Transcreditbank - 17 billion rubles (5.5%) and Bank of Moscow - 10 billion rubles (4.5%).
VTB used budget resources more actively than other banks throughout 2011. Its share of the 2.19 trillion rubles in state treasury funds deposited was 45.8% (1 trillion rubles).
VTB Chairman Andrei Kostin said in mid-March said the budget deficit in the first months of the year was one of the reasons why the banking system maintained a liquidity deficit. "The Finance Ministry has virtually left the market and, in essence, is not providing more deposits to banks, so the hopes are with the Central Bank," he said.
The Finance Ministry deposited 398.8 billion rubles in January, 87.4 billion in February and in March - 25 billion rubles.
As of March 23 the volume of funds in bank deposits dropped to 45 billion rubles from 561 billion on January 1.
The Interfax-100 review of Russia's banks shows that VTB assets were down 8.1% in January-February 2012, VTB 24 assets were down 3.6%, Transcreditbank - 3.3% and Bank of Moscow - 7.9%. Consolidated group assets dropped by 489 billion rubles.
During that time the assets of all Russian banks fell 1.8%, or by 753.7 billion rubles, so that almost 65% of the drop was due to the VTB group.
