PRESS: DIA eyes reform for quicker sale of crashed banks’ assets

MOSCOW, Dec 27 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) is preparing a reform of liquidation of crashed banks for a quick public sale of their assets, business daily Vedomosti reported Wednesday citing DIA’s head Yury Isayev.

The DIA currently deals with liquidation of 321 banks with a balanced value of their assets of 3.78 trillion rubles, and the average liquidation period is around three years. The number of banks managed by the DIA grew rapidly over the past few years, the liquidation process is long, and as time passes a number of assets become cheaper and as a result creditors receive less, Isayev said. In this situation, the central bank recently decided to be the one responsible for a bailout of banks.

As proposed by the DIA, it will estimate the quality of assets, allocate them for sale and prepare for the deal shortly after a banking license is revoked. This is expected to reduce the liquidation period to 18 months and make the process more transparent.

“The idea is to eliminate endless court procedures, which mostly do not bring an expected result, and focus on a quick, public and resultative sale until the asset is depreciated,” Isayev said, adding that the government and the central bank on the whole supported the initiative.

(57.7343 rubles – U.S. $1)

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