Russia's Central Bank has warned 209 banks presently fail to meet the minimum capital requirement of 180 million rubles ($5.8 million) to be introduced in 2012, a bank official said on Tuesday.
The new capital requirement is to come into effect on July 1, 2012.
Mikhail Sukhov, the central bank's licensing and credit organizations financial recovery department director, said there were 220 such credit institutions as of March 1, adding that the figure excluded banks undergoing financial recovery procedures.
During the first stage of monetary policy measures on January 1 of this year to strengthen stability in the banking sector, the regulator raised the minimum capital requirement for banks to 90 million rubles, following which only 22 failed to meet the requirement. Another 130 credit institutions had to augment their capital by 7.8 billion rubles to continue their operations.
Russia's banking system aggregate capital stood at approximately 4.450 trillion rubles as of June 1, 2010, according to central bank data.
The general director of the Deposit Insurance Agency, Alexander Turbanov, said some 20 banks may lose their licenses over the failure to meet the minimum capital requirements after Jan. 1, 2012.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin proposed late last year that the minimum capital requirement be raised to one billion rubles over the next six years.
MOSCOW, July 20 (RIA Novosti)
