On loans and banks
The main task now is to review risk and prolong loans. "If we demand debt repayment immediately and at any cost, we would bankrupt these companies," Oleg Vyugin, board chairman of MDM Bank, told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
He said his bank granted approximately 300 million roubles per week.
"We have suspended portfolio growth for medium-sized and large companies," he said, adding that they were working hard to determine what had changed with the bank's borrowers, because most of them have had a serious shock this fall.
"External funding is plummeting; we are mostly repaying debt. The companies are doing so too," Vyugin said.
People are saving money now, increasing their deposits, but this is not a fast process, and the increment is not large. As for companies, their reserves are falling, with the money not always remaining in deposits. "In other words, we can receive additional funding only from the state," he said.
According to Vyugin, the Central Bank has taken a clear stand, providing liquidity and believing that longer-term financing is the task of the Government.
Putin promised to discuss the issue with Vyugin in a closed meeting, because he had been informed about the financing of large companies by his previous visitor, VTB president Andrei Kostin.
Kostin told him that the VTB group's loan portfolio in January through November had grown 65%, to 2 trillion roubles, including by 25% over the past three months (September, October and November), when the situation was especially difficult.
One of the latest loans was issued to the Saturn research and production association. It was the first tranche of a loan, 3.5 billion roubles.
Vyugin had previously said that private banks were capable of distributing state funds no less effectively. Putin's decision will show if the bank manager had convinced the Prime Minister.