Gov't urges Central Bank to get rid of its stake in MICEX

The Russian government commissioned the Economy Ministry, Finance Ministry and the Central Bank to work out proposals on the Central Bank selling its stake in the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), according to Economy Minister German Gref. The minister also said that earlier the Economy Ministry had proposed to consider the expediency of the Central Bank having a stake in Sberbank, Russia's largest savings bank. Gref emphasized that this latter issue should be discussed only after the program of guaranteeing individual deposits was fully implemented, i.e. after the year 2007.

The Central Bank's withdrawal from MICEX is unlikely to affect the stability of and confidence in the Russian banking sector, Gref concluded.

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