IMF: Belarusian Banks Appear Unreliable

The conclusions of the IMF mission in Minsk are diametrically opposed to what the National Bank of Belarus has recently announced.

The results of stress tests of the Belarusian banks show their vulnerability, the head of the IMF mission in Belarus Peter Dolman has said at a press briefing in Minsk on September 21, BelaPAN reports.

"The results of stress tests of banks show their vulnerability caused by the weakness of the state-owned enterprises sector, which borrowed money," — Dolman has clarified.

Therefore, he added, it seems necessary to talk about the sources of the problems rather than their consequences, in the first place.

“It is also necessary to understand the scale of the problems, — the head of the mission has said. — To this end, an independent diagnosis of the quality of assets of the Belarusian banks has been conducted this year, the results of which will soon be made public.”

Dolman has pointed out that to solve the problems that gave rise to the deterioration of the financial situation of the banks, structural reforms are needed. “This is not only about the implementation of the reforms, but about their targeting,” — the head of the mission has explained the fund’s position.

He has stressed that such reforms require political will. “The signal must be sent not only at the highest level, but also supported at the sectoral level," — Dolman has claimed.

The National Bank initiated an independent diagnosis of the quality of the Belarusian banks’ assets earlier this year. In May, Deputy Chairman of the National Bank Dzmitry Lapko claimed the conclusions of the experts of the National Bank and international financial institutions were that the results of stress tests of the Belarusian banks showed a sufficient reserve of strength. “In the long term, there may appear questions on recapitalization of individual banks, but in general we can say that our financial sector has a sufficient margin of safety”, — Lapko said.