The president of Renaissance Capital — Russia’s largest home grown investment bank, a fiercely competitive institution which has now survived two crises — is not interested in publicly assessing the competitive landscape in Moscow’s financial sector.
Russia’s stock market was all but shut down in a single day by rumours of distress among brokers, sparked by the selloff of stocks held on margin or as collateral on repurchase agreements.
Operating often on whispers, brokers foreign and domestic slammed shut limits on each other, causing trade on the stock market to seize up.
The first victim — brokerage KIT Finance — was announced by evening and became the first financial instituation to receive a state bailout.
“The crisis has shown that rumours and gossiping about competitors is a very dangerous thing,” Renaissance Capital President Aganbegyan told the Reuters Russian Investment Summit almost a year later.
