Kyrgyz Republic: Selected Issues (Electronic book text)

1. During the first days of the April events, a reported US$240 million deposit outflow prompted fears of capital flight and led to the imposition of temporary administration on seven banks, including the country's largest bank. The main criterion for imposing temporary administration (outside of the largest bank) appears to have been alleged links to the previous regime. Strengthened supervision was also put in place in ten more banks, to safeguard the system against capital flight. Depositors were permitted to withdraw money up to a certain limit per day. In the month of April 2010, total deposits declined by 30 percent, predominantly due to the large outflow from nonresident deposits at Asia Universal Bank (AUB)-the country's largest bank accounting for 44 percent of private deposits in December 2010. Resident deposits declined by 10 percent.