State bank. Banks with state participation

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Russian state banks have an interesting history and specific features of work in the conditions of our country. Let's see how the segment of the relationship between the authorities and the banking sector works.

Central Bank and State Bank: correlation of concepts

In the philistine environment, the terms "Central Bank" and "State Bank" are sometimes identified. On the one hand, there is no particular mistake here: the Central Bank is a state-owned bank, fully owned by the authorities. On the other hand, there is another common interpretation of the word "state bank" - this is a commercial credit institution, the controlling stake of which (more than 50% of shares) belongs to the state (usually represented by the government). The second interpretation is commonly used in the Russian press and journalism. Modern large banks with state participation are VTB24, Sberbank (SB RF), Gazprombank, Rosselkhozbank. In turn, non-state ("commercial") will be the credit institution, the controlling stake of which is owned by private individuals (one or more).

Why is the “Central Bank” called the state bank? Mainly because, like a powerful institution, it stands apart from commercial creditinstitutions, manages the issue of money, regulates the national financial system, in general, solving problems, mainly not related to making a profit, but rather, close to the functions of the state.

State and non-state bank: main differences

The size of the state's share in bank ownership is only a formal distinguishing feature. State-owned banks and commercial lending institutions are different from each other due to many other indicators, which, as a rule, are determined by the practice of their activities. The following can be distinguished. The state bank most often offers loans with an interest rate lower than that of private financial institutions. The reason for this is preferential working conditions guaranteed by the government.

No one gives such privileges to a commercial institution, and it is forced to compensate for losses through increased lending rates. State-owned banks have lower interest rates on deposits than private structures, and this is also quite understandable: the former enjoy the traditional trust of the population, while the latter are forced to attract working capital. State-owned banks tend to be more flexible in their mortgage rate policy due to reduced risk (which is a consequence of the government's noted preferential terms).

History: state banks of the Russian Empire

The appearance of state-owned banks is not connected with the era of socialism, when the state controlled everything, including credit institutions. The banking system with the leading role of the state in Russia hasold history. The so-called state-owned institutions (which appeared in the 18th century) became the prototype of modern state-owned banks. Among the well-known ones are the Loan Bank (established in 1733), the Loan Bank for the nobility and the Bank for Commerce and Merchants (both appeared in 1754). An interesting fact is that all three institutions faced "bad debts" and went bankrupt because they could not repay the loans issued.

At the end of the 18th century, state-owned banks appeared that accepted deposits (safe cash desks), and the practice of capital accumulation through deposits appeared. In 1786, the "State Land Bank" was established, where the prototypes of today's mortgage programs begin to work. The first money transfers in the Russian Empire appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. They began to conduct the "State Commercial Bank". In the middle of the century, credit institutions were actively privatized, the share of power in them was declining. By the beginning of the 20th century, less than ten state-owned banks remained in Russia, about 50 private financial organizations, several hundred mutual financial aid societies, and thousands of small partnerships were functioning. After the revolution of 1917, the system of credit institutions underwent a massive reorganization.

History: the state banking system in the USSR

The Bolsheviks declared the exclusive monopoly of power on banking. Commercial lending institutions were nationalized. The leading financial organization of the country was the People's Bank of the RSFSR, accountable to Narkomfin, the work of foreign structures was prohibited. ATIn the first few years of Soviet power, credit institutions were given some independence, but in the late 1920s their work actually became a subspecies of national planning. The “State Bank of the USSR” appeared, within the framework of the party line, control was exercised over the issuance of loans and the acceptance of deposits.

In the middle of the 20th century, very few credit institutions worked in the USSR. The main ones were the State Bank, Stroybank, Vneshtorgbank, as well as savings banks. During the years of perestroika, several sectoral financial organizations appeared - Promstroybank, Zhilsotsbank, Agroprombank, and Savings Bank. A credit institution was established to service foreign trade settlements - Vnesheconombank. By the beginning of the 90s, laws appeared that created a banking system close to modern realities.

History: state-owned banks in modern Russia

The law "On banks and banking activities of the Russian Federation", adopted after the collapse of the USSR, established that there is a "Central Bank", there is a "Sberbank", as well as independent commercial institutions. The latter could work on the basis of a license from the Central Bank, had the right to set interest rates themselves and carry out currency transactions. The number of such institutions grew by leaps and bounds, several hundred of them appeared every year. The financial stability of these "quick banks" left much to be desired, many went bankrupt. The most stable, however, were state-owned banks of the Russian Federation.

History: the main state bank of the country

Sberbank -the state-owned bank, considered the leading one in Russia, positions itself as an institution with a history of more than a century and a half: in 1841, by decree of Emperor Nicholas I, savings banks appeared in Russia. Their work began to be "advertised" among the subjects of the state, they were explained what the advantages of deposits were. In the period before the revolution, several million savings books were issued in these institutions, there were several thousand savings banks in the country. Despite the complex transformations in the first years of building socialism, the cash desks helped the country's economy a lot. Especially during the Great Patriotic War, when citizens could help the front with a ruble, and after that they could restore the destroyed economy.

Savings banks existed before the reforms of the banking system of the late 80s - it was then that a credit institution appeared with the usual name - Savings Bank, state-owned, despite the market trends of perestroika. The first ATMs appeared. Largely thanks to the infrastructure developed back in Soviet times, Sberbank of Russia has become the country's leading credit institution.

The benefits of state-owned banks for the economy

Socialist times are over, now our country is building a capitalist economy. It would seem that it does not matter which banks are state-owned, who owns certain shares in ownership. However, there is a point of view among economists that this is not so. The fact is that the interests of private banks, as a rule, do not always coincide with national ones: the latter imply that monetary processes do not burden too mucheconomy, and the population received adequate services for loans and deposits. Commercial banks, in turn, care about profits, and the social role in their understanding fades into the background. They are interested in inflating inflation, which stimulates the demand for money, rising interest rates, and increasing the inflow of speculative capital into banks. The country's economy and social stability may be accompanied by crisis phenomena. This is not in the interests of the government and is not needed by most citizens. Therefore, in order to maintain stability in the country, state-owned Russian banks are needed. The presence of these does not at all contradict the principles of a market economy: state-owned banks play a significant role in developed Western countries as well.

The negative role of state banks for the economy

There is a point of view according to which the activity of state banks does some harm to the national economy. A few years ago, experts analyzed the banking systems of several dozen countries for the relationship between the work of state banks and the budget deficit (that is, the level of public debt). It turned out that the obligations of the authorities on external loans are lower in those countries where credit institutions are predominantly private.

Where SOEs play the leading role, government debt averages 45% of GDP. In countries dominated by commercial financial institutions, external borrowing obligations are lower by 7%. Budget deficits, however, are slightly higher in states dominated by private credit.institutions, but not much - about 0.4% of GDP.

State-owned banks abroad: German experience

Germany is a country where state-owned banks differ greatly from private ones in their practice, despite the fact that institutions of the second type are in the majority. The main task assigned to German state-owned banks is lending to projects that are significant for the entire economy. In state-owned banks in Germany, you can get a fairly attractive loan for business: rates are about 1.5-2% per annum. Interestingly, foreign investors can also count on these conditions, it is only necessary to show the credit institution that the project is capable of creating a significant number of jobs and will benefit the German economy.

There are German state-owned banks, no matter how fantastic it may sound, loans without interest and even those that can not be returned under certain conditions. All these facts indicate that the dividing line between an organization of the type "state bank" and a privately owned credit institution in developed capitalist Germany is much more pronounced than in Russia.