Attitudes of Private Investors Toward Various Forms and Methods of Savings

The aim in this article is to analyze the problem of asymmetry of information in the savings market, not only from the standpoint of the demand for deposits as formed by the banks, but from the standpoint of their supply as wellâ that is, from the standpoint of the households themselves. We utilized for this purpose the data from a special survey that was conducted by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion [VTsIOM] within the context of the Institute of the Analysis of Enterprises and Markets research project in Moscow at the beginning of 1998. Respondents were asked about the existence of savings, the forms in which they are held, and the significance of the individual factors they take into account when selecting a bank, as well as their desire (or reluctance) to change the bank where they hold their savings in the near future.