The amendment, abolishing the Russian Federation's subsidiary responsibility for compensating lost deposits, shall apply to all agreements reached after its enactment. It was passed in all three readings by a 280-to-104 vote, with one abstention.
Addressing the Duma, Vasily Galushkin, the bill's main architect, pointed out that the effective deposit insurance law created unequal conditions on the banking services market by introducing the Russian government's subsidiary responsibility for compensating deposits in banks where the Central Bank holds a stake.
Central Bank Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev pointed out at the State Duma's plenary session today that the amendment currently under the MPs' consideration would create transparent and equal conditions in the banking sector.
Some of the Opposition and independent lawmakers, however, harshly criticized the bill. Mikhail Zadornov, an independent MP on the State Duma Tax Committee, said, for one, that the adoption of the bill may undermine individual customers' confidence in banks. "The outflow of deposits from Russian banks has only just begun to slow down," he remarked.
Communist MP Sergei Shtogrin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Tax Committee, echoed Mr. Zadornov's point by saying that the inflow of money to Russian banks had dwindled by half as compared with the previous year and the bill at issue would only aggravate the situation.
Members of the patriotic faction Rodina also spoke against the bill. State Duma Vice Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, censured the draft, describing it as a "financial subversion" and cautioning his fellow MPs against complicity.
Parliament's lower house today also passed an insolvency bill in its third, and final reading. It was voted in by 410 MPs. The bill is aimed at ensuring stability of the banking sector, protecting the rights of creditors, and improving the quality of supervision on the part of the Bank of Russia. It sets forth specific measures to raise top executives' responsibility for preventing their crediting institutions from bankruptcy. And it also vests the Bank of Russia with additional authority to control the situation at problem banks.
