Russian Standard Bank is not going to offer its individual customers any cash loans or mortgages until after October 1, 2007. ‘This can definitely only be seen as a bad thing: first, a bank just doesn’t have any cash to give loans, and then, before you know it, it lacks money to return deposits. What matters most in this particular case is making sure things never arrive at the second scenario,’ Vsevolod Chaschin, General Director of Blagodat Securities Investment Company, said to UrBC.

‘Russian Standard Bank is a well-known business, so its current problems might actually hurt some other conservative banks as well; this, in its turn, would do a lot of damage to the stable market connections and pricing policies. I don’t see why a decision taken by Russian Standard Bank’s management as early as August was only revealed to the general public in late September. This surely does not build up on its credibility,’ he added.

‘The way I see it, the bank’s internal problem is that while it happens to be a large player on the consumer lending market, it never bothers to inform the people about its changing crediting policies. This lack of transparency aimed at trying to sell, in whichever way, is not very far-sighted,’ Mr. Chaschin noted.