State Support of Banks not Effective - Head of ATFBank
OREANDA-NEWS. July 15, 2009. Chairman of Kazakhstan-based ATFBank Alexander Piker says state support is not effective for banks, reported the press-centre of KASE.
"The Kazakhstan government bought shares in some banks, and some aid was rendered through state crediting programs. It can be assessed later how effective such support is on the long-term scale. I do not think, at the time being the state support is effective. Three banks defaulted, and the state has no clear position in this regard", - A. Piker said to "Business & Vlast" in an interview released on Friday.
In his opinion, the fact that the largest Kazakhstan-based bank BTA Bank defaulted on trade obligations had a very negative impact on the global market.
"Largest international companies insuring export credits, such as German Hermes or French Coface, till recently were still ready to finance Kazakhstan and support export to Kazakhstan. Now they may likely think: if BTA Bank (and, accordingly, the state, holding a major stake in the bank) once refused to honor their trade obligations, this may indicate, they can do it again", - head of ATFBank said".
Additionally he emphasized the BTA Bank problem could be disclosed one and half years ago.
"I really think the state could step in as early as in January 2008 and solve problems of the bank. (...) Then, I am sure, it could be much cheaper", - A. Piker stressed.
It is known, the Kazakhstan government approved the anti-crisis program in November 2008, approving the plan at the beginning this year.
To implement anti-crisis measures an important role is assigned to commercial banks being conduits to finance large projects.
Thus, KZT480 bn (USD4 bn) was spent to support the financial sector.
BTA Bank, Alliance Bank and Astana-Finance are restructuring their debt.
ATFBank is a part of UniCredit Group and in 2008 was ranked 22nd regarding the volume of assets among CIS banks in the Interfax-1000 ranking: CIS Banks prepared by Interfax, and 5th among Kazakh banks.
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