As Evgeny Korolev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of SBERBANK of Russia, said to mass-media, in November, 2008, the inflow of deposits of the physical persons in SBERBANK of Russia amounted to 11.8 billion rubles. In the first 8 days of December, 2008, alone, the inflow reached 18.5 billion rubles.

The National Agency for Financial Studies (NAFI) has published the results of a research, dedicated to the people’s attitude to a non-return of the bank credits.

According to the analytical report «Russian banks: love weakens every day», made by Bank «Renaissance Capital», only 30 largest banks of the Russian Federation will avoid serious problems in 2009, while for the others «merge and absorption will be vital». Experts from «Renaissance Capital», believe that with account of the recalled licenses the number of credit and financial establishments in Russia can be reduced by 200-250 banks; at that, in 2009, only 5 state banks will grow at advanced rates, and 25 other biggest banks will demonstrate growth of their assets at an average market level.

A high risk of credit losses has forced the National Bank of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance and the country’s banks to elaborate a plan of joint actions for re-structuring of the borrowers’ debts. If the participants of the credit market agree with the terms of a corresponding memorandum, NBU will be able to lower the capital adequacy norm, while the Ministry of Finance will provide tax rebates to those banks, which sign the memorandum.

On December 8, 2008, the National Reserve Bank (NRB) announced its decision to introduce a moratorium on payment of penalties or higher rates under the credits for the borrowers - physical persons.

At the international round table «National payment system, e-cash and bank cards: legal regulation» Anatoly Aksakov, President of Association «Russia», emphasized that a national payment system should be formed in a complex, with a simultaneous elimination of contradictions in the Russian legislation, in compliance with the international standards, and with account of the interstate integration.

In the opinion of Lubov Slobodeniuk, Executive Director of CreditSvit Company(Kiev), the point of no-return of mortgage credits can be expected in the spring of 2009. This risk, she believes, is due to the fact that 82 % of all the credits are in dollars, and lately grivna has depreciated by 30 %.

As Alma Obayeva, Deputy Director of Department of Settlement Regulation of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, said at the conference «Mobile commerce 2008», the Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation were working on a bill which, probably, would also concern the non-banking operators accepting payments. The bill «On the national payment system» will be presented to the government of the Russian Federation in 2009.

According to information from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), an analysis of liquidity of the Ukrainian banking system testifies that the measures taken by NBU to counter the crisis phenomena in the banking system reduced the rates of the daily money outflow from the banks, and ensured solvency and timeliness of settlements in the banking system as a whole.

By mid November, 2008, over 50 thousand American cardholders had a credit card debt exceeding 900 US dollars. Many of these debts are impossible to collect due a pitiable economic situation of the debtors, therefore the debts should be written-off or bankruptcy procedures started.

The National Bank of Belarus is working on the project of creation of a uniform payment information environment. The given system is expected to be introduced in 2009.

Participants of Adam Smith Russian Banking Forum held in London, believe that 20 % of the Russian banks can become victims of the global financial crisis.

According to Merrill Lynch, ruble will continue to fall, but already in 2010 it will return to the rate of 25.9 rubles/ $, if the state aid to the economy is efficient enough and oil prices restore.

Within the framework of the monitoring project «Trust to financial institutions, appeal of the financial instruments: indexes and ratings», the National Agency for Financial Studies (NAFI) presents ratings of reliability and transparency of the financial institutions given by investors and borrowers.

InformZaschita Company Group and OKB SAPR Company, Russian producer of information security hardware, have announced their merger.

On December 4, 2008, the European Central Bank and Bank of England considerably lowered their base interest rates, when recent week negative macroeconomic data proved that the economic recession would be deeper and longer, than previously thought, informs Associated Press.

Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, has signed the Decree on additions to the «List of activities, which require special permission (license) and the sum of a State Tax, established for obtaining of a special permission (license) for these kinds of activity», approved by Decree №782 of September 2, 2002, on improvement of the rules of granting of a special permission (license) for certain kinds of activity.

With reference to the press release of Prostobank-Consulting, Interfax Agency informs that Ukrainian mortgage market is practically completely paralyzed. Today credits for purchase of housing in new buildings are not provided by any of the country’s 50 largest banks, whereas acquisition of secondary housing is credited by only 2 banks – an affiliated bank of SBERBANK of Russia and Brokbusinessbank.

A wave of unauthorized microtransactions has recently overflowed the American credit cardholders. Its scale and the reasons behind it are still not identified.

In 2009, the Russian insurers may face up to 50 % reduction of the volumes of collected insurance premiums and a similar reduction of the number of players. The companies, which have invested big money in retail, will have to reconsider radically the terms of its recoupment, and those, who specialized exclusively in autoinsurance, will have to think, how to survive.