"The emergence of banks under these freewheeling conditions, before enterprise privatizaiton had occured and before the government had any intention of creating a fully market-based environment for their operations, led to an almost uncontrollable proliferation of undercapitalized, poorly regulated, less-than-professional banks. The most typical, persistent problem for pocket banks was overlending to their own shareholders at favorable interest rates [Sounds familiar? Guess what happened at Parex]. These banks harbored fatal flaws from birth because they had been specifically founded to serve the needs of one enterprise or group of enterprises [Hello Kirov Lipman et al.]."

p 43, A fistful of rubles: the rise and fall of the Russian banking system (Juliet Johnson 2000)