Annual will be weighed in grams – Newspaper Kommersant No. 18 (7463) dated 02/01/2023

VTB begins to accrue interest on depersonalized metal accounts in gold. They operate on three-month deposits, and you need to place at least 500 g on them. Ten years ago, banks offered similar deposits for a longer period with lower requirements for the weight of the precious metal, but they were not successful.

From February 1, VTB starts paying interest on unallocated metal accounts (OMS) in gold. The bank explained to Kommersant that the return on the deposit will be 1.75% per annum, interest will be charged in grams of gold, but only for the first three months, and such an account can be opened until July 31. To receive interest, you must deposit at least 500 g of gold into the account. According to other Russian banks, they do not charge interest on such accounts.

In the first half of the 2010s, a number of banks offered to open time depersonalized metal deposits with interest. Gazprombank offered an annual account in gold at 1% when depositing 50 g of metal. Uralsib Bank opened deposits for six months, nine months and a year when depositing 10 g of gold at a rate of 0.2-1% per annum. At Nomos-bank (now FC Otkrytiye bank), the yield on compulsory medical insurance did not exceed 0.5% per annum.

Last year, the interest of private individuals in the opening of CHI increased markedly (see Kommersant dated October 5, 2022). According to VTB, last year its clients opened 45,000 accounts for 40 tons of precious metals. “CMIs were especially popular as one of the alternative instruments for investing,” says Natalia Tuchkova, head of the Savings department at VTB. Vladimir Elmanin, Chairman of the Board of Realist Bank, noted that after the abolition of VAT on the purchase of bullion, precious metals “could become a full-fledged investment tool for Russians against the backdrop of dollar and euro volatility.”

According to Ms. Tuchkova, accrual of interest on metal accounts “may become a trend in the market, as it will draw attention to this instrument of customers who have not used it before.” However, according to experts, accruing interest for a limited period of time is usually a marketing campaign. “It is difficult to evaluate it differently from the position of investors, since, of course, interest for several months may not be comparable with the volatility of precious metals quotes over a more significant time horizon,” says Yury Belikov, managing director of the Expert RA rating agency.

Since November 2022, gold has been steadily rising in price. In particular, at the auctions of the Moscow Exchange, quotes over the past three months have grown by 30%, although they are at the level of 2021. According to Mr. Belikov, many qualified investors can evaluate the trend of recent months conservatively and not bet on its stability in the medium and long term. “The UMI shares are primarily designed for a wide audience of unqualified investors, many of whom have become disillusioned with the stock market after the boom of 2020-2021 and who, in the current environment, may not have enough operations with foreign currency and instruments denominated in it,” he said. In addition, the new product is offered with a rather high barrier (equivalent to 2.14 million rubles at the exchange rate), so it’s hard to imagine that it will become very popular, Mark Savichenko, chief analyst at Ivolga Capital, doubts.

Maxim Buylov, Polina Trifonova, Olga Sherunkova