Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said on Thursday that Russia must not allow a banking crisis to happen, as deteriorating confidence in the sector led a mid-sized bank to turn away depositors.
Banking confidence was shaken in June by the closure of two small banks - one suspected of money laundering and another after a run by depositors - forcing the central bank to boost liquidity on the interbank market and ease reserve requirements.
A third bank, Dialog-Optim, stopped taking new deposits from customers on Thursday, after earlier limiting withdrawals and credit card operations by clients, in a fresh sign the situation has not yet stabilised.
Moscow-based Dialog-Optim says it is Russia's 17th-largest bank in terms of private deposits, making it larger than Sodbiznesbank and CreditTrust, the two banks recently shut down.
Nobody expects a repeat of Russia's 1998 crisis when many savers lost their money as a rouble collapse and domestic default by the government ruined many banks.
But there are concerns that many of Russia's 1,200 banks may not qualify for a planned insurance deposit scheme, threatening to push more weak banks to the wall.
"The fundamental burden rests on the system of banking supervision, and on the government, and regulators should not allow a crisis situation to develop among market participants," Fradkov told ministers.
The five-year strategy aims to boost the financial strength and transparency of Russia's banks, and increase legal safeguards for creditors, to boost the role of the sector in financing Russia's economic development.
Addressing the cabinet, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin forecast that Russian banking assets would rise to 50-60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2008 from 42 percent now.
Banks' capital would increase to seven to right percent of GDP from 6.1 percent, and bank lending to 26-28 percent from 17.9 percent now - very low by international standards.
Kudrin also said two major state institutions - savings bank Sberbank and foreign trade bank Vneshtorgbank - would not be majority privatised before 2007.
Sberbank, controlled by the central bank, is the only large bank listed on the Russian stock market. Talks on selling a minority stake in Vneshtorgbank to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are stuck on price.
"I think we will only sell minority stakes up to 2007. After 2007 we will ask the question about selling controlling stakes," Kudrin told the cabinet meeting, monitored by reporters.
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