400 billion RUR entered the Russian banking system in the form of deposits in December 2008, Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Sergey Ignatiev reported at a special meeting on economic issues chaired by the President.

Ignatiev feels things got back to normal in December.

‘The private customers’ deposits dropped by about 360 billion RUR in October; then, the amount remained practically the same in November and rose by 400 billion RUR in December. Given the troubles in the fall, we got a very positive result at the beginning of winter,’ he said.

Andrei Melnikov, the Deposit Insurance Agency’s Deputy GD, agreed that December’s achievements made up for the unsatisfactory performance in the fall.

A number of officials and financial analysts believe these improvements in the banking system mean the people are starting to trust the country’s banks again.

SKB-Bank, for example, was able to significantly exceed its ante-crisis private customers’ deposit volume in December 2008. By the end of the year, the figure had nearly reached 12 billion RUR compared with 11.1 billion RUR on September 15, 2008.