Banks Criticize Easing Rules for Foreigners

Russia's top bankers asked President Boris Yeltsin on Thursday to overturn his decree easing restrictions on foreign banks, warning that it would provide ammunition to the ultranationalist opposition.In a sharply worded letter sent to Yeltsin, the association said: "The international banking community will have to keep in mind that in Russia there exist ultranationalist forces with pro-fascist ideas that use the presence of foreign banks to stoke the fires of political passions."The letter was the association's most critical response since Yeltsin issued a decree Friday lifting limitations he had placed on foreign banks last November. Those restrictions prohibited foreign institutions from serving Russian residents and clients for two years.As a result of the decree, six European banks and the Bank of China are now free to operate without restrictions. Two licensed American banks, Citibank and Chase Manhattan, remain subject to the restrictions. The Russian banks, which fear that the foreign institutions will grab the best Russian and Western clients, called on Yeltsin in the letter to let the initial ban run its course."We call for a moratorium on opening branches of foreign banks in Russia for 1 1/2 years until Yeltsin's decree expires," the association said in its letter.However, at a news conference Thur-sday bankers conceded that they did not want Yeltsin to repeal the law because it would be embarrassing for Russia."We don't want to look as if we are a country that passes different laws every day," said Vladimir Gusinski, president of Most Bank.They said they feared the decree, which stipulates that new banking licenses only be granted to banks from countries that give equal access to Russian banks, would open the floodgates to more foreign institutions."This is the first step to opening up Russia's banking system for foreign banks," said Sergei Yegorov, head of the bank association. Alexander Livshits, the top economic advisor to the president, rejected the charge in an interview published Thursday in Nezavissimaya Gazeta. He said foreign banks would be limited to the dozen that had received licenses before Nov. 15.But Russian bankers said even a small number of foreign institutions was too many."Even four or five banks would cut the oxygen from us," said Leonid Hevzlin, vice president of Menatep Bank.He compared foreign banks operating in Russia to "dogs running in a race against cockroaches.""We buy everything from" abroad, "education, expertise, computers, building materials and even expensive cars," Hevzlin said. "But this market we began by ourselves and we want to win sometime."Foreign bankers argue that their institutions will help bring in Western investment and lower the high rates Russian banks charge for their services.Chase Manhattan and Citibank remain subject to the restrictions because the United States has yet to sign a bilateral investment treaty with Russia.Several other licensed banks, including Bank of Austria and Yapi Toko Bank, a Russian-Turkish joint venture, also remain subject to the restrictions.John Anderson, a spokesman for Chase Manhattan in New York said, "We are still hoping that we will be receiving full licensure."Mark Taplan, a U.S. embassy spokesperson, would only say that the embassy was studying the decree.The banking decree allows only banks from countries that have signed bilateral investment protection treaties with Russia to operate without restrictions.While Yeltsin and former U.S. President George Bush signed the treaty in 1992 and it was ratified by the U.S. Senate, the Russian parliament has yet to approve the treaty. Vladimir Trofimov, chief of staff of the Duma's International Affairs Committee, said it would not be on the agenda before the parliament's summer vacation."Russian banks should have the same rights in the United States as American bankers have here," he said. "I believe the American government is not ready to allow foreign bankers to enter in their market."