The Ministry of Finance will proceed individually in the case of municipalities and regions that have money left in the closed bank Sberbank CZ. But the state will not automatically help everyone who has money in this bank at this time. The Minister of Finance Zbyněk Stanjura (ODS) said this in the Chamber of Deputies today in response to the interpellation of STAN MP Eliška Olšáková, who has been the chairwoman of the Association of Local Authorities of the Czech Republic since last November. Olšáková asked him if the Ministry of Finance would prepare a loan that would help the municipalities. Sberbank CZ, which has ties to Russia, closed its branches this week. The Czech National Bank has launched a process leading to the revocation of its license.
“We will certainly negotiate this, we will act individually, but a loan is also not a cost-effective item,” said Minister Stanjura. He added that the state would have to borrow itself to lend to the municipalities.
He also pointed out that when the State Treasury system was introduced years ago, the proposal was made that municipalities and regions must have accounts with the Czech National Bank. However, the municipalities and regions were against it, and therefore it remained only possible, he noted. He said that at least since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, it was clear from his point of view that a bank owned by Russia’s central bank was extremely risky, at least politically.
“But to say here that the state will automatically help everyone who has money there, then I’m not ready to say such a statement here. Because as I said, even if it’s not popular: where there are rights, there is also responsibility,” Stanjura said. He said that the ministry did not even know the exact number of municipalities that have money in Sberbank, and that only municipalities with more than 3,000 inhabitants found that there were 123 of these municipalities and that only five municipalities were entitled to compensation from the guarantee fund.
He said that according to reports from public sources, Sberbank has relatively valuable assets, and the municipalities that have money there will get to them, although not to everyone. However, he noted that no one knows what percentage they will be able to recover the property and that it will be a long process.
Source: CTK
