MOSCOW, December 19 (RAPSI) – The State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, has adopted in the second and third readings a bill raising deposit insurance from 700,000 to 1.4 million rubles (about $23,500), Interfax reported on Friday.

Relevant amendments have been made to the law on insuring private individuals’ deposits with banks in Russia and to the law on the Central Bank of Russia.

Earlier on Friday, the lower house adopted in the final readings several amendments aimed at stabilizing the Russian banking system. Under them, up to 10 percent of the National Wealth Fund can be invested in the deposits or securities of banks with capital of at least 100 billion rubles ($1.7bln).

The national Deposit Insurance Agency will be allocated about 1 trillion rubles ($16.8bln) for increasing the authorized capital of strategic banks.

The Finance Ministry believes this will be enough to boost the capital of the national banking sector by 13 percent. Money will be primarily allocated to strategic banks.

Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, previously reported an outflow of funds from individuals’ deposits due to the rapid depreciation of the ruble. On Friday, Sberbank announced that this trend has receded.