Kazakhstan has created a system of collective insurance of deposits

/IRBIS, Feb.16, 00/ - REUTERS informs that today the National Bank of Kazakhstan and 16 other banks announced that they have created a fund for collective insurance of the deposits of private persons to increase the trust of the population in banking system. It is also said the fund would return call deposits when any of the banks-members will be forced to liquidate itself. "From today the fund began to work and this is a positive event in the country as a whole. We believe it will result in certain inflow of the deposits of the population", said the chairman of the National Bank Grigorii Marchenko. The chairman of the fund Maiko Sagyndykova said 80% of all call deposits were in sixteen banks that became the members of the system. The National bank informs total volumes of the call deposits of private persons equals about $180 mln. Sagyndykova said they would do their best to eliminate all doubts about the safety of the deposits of private persons. The authorized capital of the fund equals KZT1 bln and was paid by the National bank. It is said the banks have already made mandatory calendar fees for the first quarter of 2000 at 0.125% of the amounts of call deposits of the private persons. The chairman of the National Bank said the system would cover only call deposits so far, and the question about insuring time deposits would be resolved later by the members of the system. If the bank goes bankrupt, the fund will compensate the depositor for his amount of call deposit according to a certain scale: up to KZT200 th. deposits will be reimbursed fully, from KZT200 th. and up - in descending order. For the deposits higher than KZT1 mln the reimbursement equals KZT600 th. plus 10% of the amount over KZT1 mln. One depositor can be reimbursed for up to KZT1 mln. Marchenko said they had to protect small depositors at first. The fund embodies the biggest and the most stable banks of the country and four affiliated banks, whose parents, non-residents, have long term and individual ratings not lower than "A" from any rating agency. Marchenko said the probability of these banks to go bankrupt is "very theoretical". The chairman of the Association of the financiers of Kazakhstan Daulet Sembaev said the purpose of creating this system had to support the real sector of the economy which lacks bank loans. Following is the list of the members of the system of collective insurance of the deposits: - Caspian bank - Bank TuranAlem - Bank CenterCredit - Kazkommertsbank - Komir bank - Halyk savings bank of Kazakhstan - Neftebank - Nurbank - Temirbank - Almaty merchant bank - Eurasian bank - Demir Kazakhstan bank - ABN AMRO Bank Kazakhstan (Holland) - Citibank (USA) - Societte General Kazakhstan (France) - HSBC Bank Kazakhstan (Hong Kong).