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The Bank of Russia will begin using currency swaps – a new tool that will solve the problems of currency liquidity of banks, have come under the sanctions. In fact, it is an alternative currency interventions, according to respondents, RBC economists.
From Tuesday, 17 September, the Central Bank will begin operations “currency swap” lasting one day to sell dollars for rubles and their subsequent purchase, according to a press release said the Bank of Russia. The interest rate for the ruble of the transaction will be equal to the key rate reduced by 1 percentage point, ie 7% per annum on the dollar of the transaction – 1.5% per annum. The limit on the volume of transactions “currency swap” settlement dates “today / tomorrow” is set in the amount of $ 1 billion, the volume of transactions on the terms of settlement “tomorrow / next day” – $ 2 billion.
«Such a tool used in Russia for the first time, but the decision to enter it is very logical. Recently there has been a lack of a strong dollar on the Russian market. Today it was particularly noticeable: the ruble continued to fall, by updating time highs, despite the fact that other Russian assets remained virtually unchanged in price, “- says chief economist for Russia and the CIS,” Renaissance Capital “Oleg Kuzmin.
“Such an instrument used by the ECB in the framework of the acute phase of the crisis of 2008-2009, when the European economy was a shortage of dollars. Apparently, now the Russian market imbalance between local supply and demand for foreign currency has reached a level where the Bank of Russia decided to intervene. But to say that there is some huge deficit, we can not, simply by folding the recent rate of the ruble against the dollar demand for dollars was more than the willingness to provide them, “- adds Chief Economist, Sistema Evgeny Nadorshin.
On Friday, September 12, the head of the Central Bank Nabiullina announced the availability of the controller to use custom tools – from foreign exchange intervention to stabilize the situation in the domestic market to foreign currency refinancing and unsecured loans – depending on the extent of the risk. Asked about the possibility of providing foreign currency liquidity to banks, Elvira said that “currently there is no need to enter any additional tools, but the Bank of Russia has every opportunity to solve this problem, when the need arises».
“The shortage of dollars has arisen for two reasons: firstly, after all sanctions decreased significantly limits the western market participants on the Russian counterparts, and secondly in September must occur large payments on external debt – about $ 20 billion,” – explains Kuzmin. “Under various kinds of restrictions under the sanctions were the largest market participants, and this was the main cause of the problem. Meet the demand for foreign currency from their side very few people in the Russian market in the state, and to obtain the necessary liquidity for foreigners, as they have done before, it is impossible. In my opinion, it is the banks that fall under the sanctions will primarily use the tool “- adds Nadorshin.
Earlier about the problems with monetary liquidity resulting from the sanctions and, as a consequence, restrictions on access to external capital markets, said the president of Sberbank German Gref. “The banking system and enterprises need to find other options for funding currency, – he said. – There is a problem of foreign currency liquidity: we have an obligation and our clients in the currency that you want to perform. We are now considering all options to attract foreign currency liquidity, including by raising the rates on foreign currency deposits, as we are studying ways of attracting foreign currency liquidity from the Central Bank “, – he explained in the statement following the meeting of the Supervisory Board of Sberbank.
Economists note that the currency swap – a tool akin to currency interventions. “Providing currency through swap will allow to postpone the start of the intervention on the boundary of the corridor and provide the market with currency within the corridor,” – said Nadorshin. “You can say that it is an alternative currency interventions, virtually the only difference from the swap interventions – this repayment transaction, so you can expect that it will be positive for the ruble,” – adds Kuzmin.
Siranoush Sharoyan
September 16, 2014
RBC
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