Russian banks face extinction following the country's economic meltdown and long political stalemate. In the chaos of mid-September with no government, no central bank governor, the rouble free falling and the payments systems in seizure, even healthy banks were counting the days they could stay alive. "Banks' blood is money and there is no money in the system. Everyone is bleeding to death," said one analyst.
"It's possible that no-one will emerge alive if there is no policy," said Maxim Shashenkov, head of sales and trading at Alfa Bank. "The banks need a firm government and a firm central bank that are capable of announcing policy for the banking sector right now."
In the absence of this, Russian banks have been trying to salvage what they can, some by using the debt moratorium as a shield for asset stripping; the more enlightened by attempting to reach agreements with counterparties and by ruthless cost cutting.
The seriousness of the situation was undelined when Vladimir Potanin, head of Interros, said on September 10 that the group's Uneximbank needed substantial discounts from creditors or it was likely to default on forward currency contracts.