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By Bloomberg

Russian lawmakers pushed through more measures to restore faith in the banking system after the ruble’s collapse forced the biggest bank rescue this year.

The lower house of parliament raised and passed a legal amendment yesterday allowing the Deposit Insurance Agency to buy stakes in banks before they face bankruptcy proceedings to keep the system financially stable, according to the legislation.

Russia is rushing to avoid a run on banks, rocked by sanctions over Ukraine and an economy on the verge of recession, after containing last week’s record ruble decline. Lawmakers agreed to a 1 trillion-ruble ($18 billion) boost to the agency’s funds, an 11-fold increase, and doubled the level of insured deposits on Dec. 19 following central bank measures to ease demand on banks as foreign debt payments loom.

The central bank this week put National Bank Trust, Russia’s 15th biggest by retail deposits, under the control of the Deposit Insurance Agency. An investor will soon be selected to carry out the central bank’s 30 billion-ruble rescue, the Bank of Russia said.

Compliance Action

RBS Suspends Bonuses of 18 Traders Amid FX-Rigging Review

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc suspended bonuses of 18 traders as part of a review of its foreign-exchange business in the wake of a $634 million fine.

The company is reviewing the conduct of more than 50 current and former traders at the investment bank, it said yesterday in a statement. Six employees face disciplinary action, with three suspended pending investigations.

A former RBS trader was arrested on Dec. 19 in relation to the U.K. Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into currency rigging, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Regulators in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland last month ordered six banks, including RBS and HSBC Holdings Plc, to pay about $4.3 billion to settle a probe into the rigging of foreign-exchange rates.

“We are undertaking a robust and thorough review into the actions of the traders that caused this wrongdoing and the management that oversaw it,” Jon Pain, RBS’s head of conduct and regulatory affairs, said in the statement. “No further bonus payments will be made or unvested bonus awards released to those in scope of the review until it has concluded.”

The SFO confirmed it had last week arrested a man in Billericay, a town in Essex, east of London. The agency declined to comment on his identity or employment.

FBI Raids Puerto Rico’s Doral Bank Citing Unspecified Probes

The home office of Doral Bank, the San Juan, Puerto Rico- based lender, was raided yesterday by the FBI in a search for evidence related to “several ongoing investigations,” the agency said.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents collected information including computers and documents, Special Agent Moises Quinones said. He declined to comment further on the subject of the probes.

Doral Bank is part of San Juan-based Doral Financial Corp.

Miriam Warren, a spokeswoman for Doral, confirmed that investigators “have pursued the collection of certain information at the main offices of our institution.”

The bank is cooperating fully with law enforcement and “we look forward to sharing more on the focus of the investigation as we learn more,” she said in a statement.

The bank’s commercial operations haven’t been affected, she said.

Interviews/Commentary

Heim, Stein Discuss Barclays Dark Pool Lawsuit by Schneiderman

Robert Heim, partner at Meyers & Heim LLP, and Elliot Stein, litigation analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, discussed New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s lawsuit accusing Barclays Plc of bilking customers to expand its dark pool. They speak with June Grasso and Michael Best on Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Law.”