"The panic stopped as soon as depositors saw their rights were under protection. Legislative strides have been made for such protection, with deposits guaranteed in all banks, whether in or outside the deposit insurance network.
"Rest assured about your money, and go vacationing-this is summer, after all," he called on private depositors.
The interbank credit market is getting back to normal far slower, and has to be revived yet, added Mr. Tosunyan.
Alexei Sokolov, Zenit bank Board Chairman, is of a contrasting opinion. "There is no crisis at all in the market. Things were quite normal-bankers were merely taking stock of their contracting parties. They were certainly apprehensive as several crediting companies' indices gave cause for alarm," he explained to the Novosti audience.
Zenit has credit limits in several dozen crediting companies, and a mere eight limits were recently cut, with nine established at the same time, said the bank boss.
A reporter asked him just when he expected the interbank credit market fully coming back onto its own. "That may be even tomorrow-the day many banks are convening credit committees," replied Mr. Sokolov.
The BIN Bank will quite soon resume its suspended credit limits. The suspension concerned ten to fifteen of the forty banks whom active partnership is tying with BIN on the credit market, announced Sergei Maryin, its First Deputy President.
Characteristically, banking problems have not hit the property market. As Gareghin Tosunyan sees it, a longer crisis would have an impact on it-banks would be cutting their loan portfolios and using up previously invested assets to guarantee liquidity. That would influence the housing, construction and property markets. Things are really hot in the housing market now-but these are its own problems, and banks have no bearing on it whatsoever, he pointed out.
Mr. Tosunyan took up another burning issue, whether Russia has too many banks. "The Lord and the market alone can say how many banks a country may need, so we ought to talk banking progress not numerical cuts," he remarked.
"What we have today is a banking service shortage, so we have to develop that market, with due attention to service quality. The latest banking technologies and know-how must be introduced everywhere. Bank service quality is to be unified throughout Russia so as to attract private money to the national economy."
As for banking capitalization, it is to increase several-fold: "Sheer capital increase is not enough. Capitalization is an essential aspect of national banking progress," said the Russian Banking Association President.
