As the global financial crisis develops, with leading U.S. and European banks and companies reporting record-high losses for the past year and the first quarter of this year, Russian monetary and financial authorities have been taking preventive measures to insulate the domestic banking community against global repercussions.
The cutoff rate, at which bids were accepted, stood at 7.25% per annum, with the average-weighted deposit rate reaching 7.26% p.a. and demand amounting to 17.685 billion rubles. Budget funds will be deposited with banks on April 25 and repaid on May 21.
At the first deposit auction held on April 17, the Finance Ministry offered 23.6 billion rubles ($1 billion) to eight banks, including state-controlled retail savings bank Sberbank, and commercial banks Alfa Bank and the Bank of Moscow, at an average-weighted rate of 7.31% per annum.
"It is good that a new transparent instrument has appeared on the market to shore up liquidity," a source close to the auction's organizers said.
