Russian banks to consolidate efforts

Today, the first national meeting of bank associations took place in Moscow. As president of the Association of Russian Banks Garegin Tosonyan stated at a press conference, a general agreement on consolidated banks' efforts for developing and strengthening the banking system of Russia was signed. The implementation of this agreement will be organized by the Regional Bureau consisting of heads of bank associations, which signed the agreement. Tosonyan was elected the head of the Regional Bureau. According to him, 20 out of 25 bank associations signed this agreement. Tosonyan pointed out that the major line of the Bureau's activities would be the development of the regional banking system.

At the same time, the Association or Regional Banks 'Russia' refused to sign this agreement. According to senior vice president of the association Vladimir Kiyevsky, the document is "an attempt to monopolize the opinion of the banking community", as according to the agreement, only the Association of Russian Banks could be the representative of regional associations and banks, which had signed this agreement, in the Central Bank of Russia, ministries and other authorities. The Russia Association previously suggested creating a coordination council of bank associations, which would have include representatives of bank communities on the rotation basis.