Tatarstan leadership actively working with Central Bank - Putin
MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - The government and president of Tatarstan are actively working with the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) on the situation in the republic's banking sector, President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference on Friday.
"As far as I know, the Central Bank is actively working with the leadership of Tatarstan, both the president of Tatarstan and the government of Tatarstan. This republic is, of course, one of the leaders among constituent members of the Russian Federation in terms of the development of the economy and many other issues, the social sector," Putin said.
The CBR earlier installed a temporary administration at Tatfondbank , Tatarstan's largest lender. This bank's problems have affected other lenders in the region. A temporary administration was installed at Intekhbank on December 23; Timer Bank and Tatagroprombank have imposed limits on withdrawals; and Altynbank has been hit because it is serviced by Tatfondbank's processing center.
"The course pursued by the Central Bank for improving the health of the financial system is supported by virtually everyone at the expert level, both here in Russia and at the international expert level," Putin said.
Efforts to improve the health of the banking system are primarily aimed at protecting the interests of depositors, the president said.
"If institutions that, as was said quite recently, are not financial institutions but laundries for washing some kind of money remain on our financial market, nothing good will come from this," Putin said.
It is necessary to "carefully look at how to support both industrial enterprises, and small and medium enterprises," he said.
The president recalled that in his address to the Federal Assembly he talked about Russia needing a network of small regional banks subject to reduced regulatory requirements. The CBR plans to introduce proportional regulation and divide lenders into banks that are systemically important, banks with universal licenses and banks with basic licenses. For the latter, the scope of operations will be limited, but CBR requirements will be less stringent.
