Management of sovereign funds would be too much for VEB - Storchak
MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Transferring the management of Reserve Fund and National Welfare Fund resources to Vnesheconombank (VEB) would be a conflict of interests and too much work for the bank, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said.
"From our point of view, this is an obvious conflict of interests," he said, commenting on VEB Chairman Vladimir Dmitriyev's statement that he is not opposed to considering the idea.
"VEB is an active participant on financial markets. It is a borrower, a creditor and a broker - there is no guise it doesn't assume. But most importantly, it is a development institute and an institute that has to guarantee the efficiency of the projects it finances," Storchak said.
If VEB were to be assigned the function of sovereign fund management, it would be "an excessive decision for one institute - to do everything at once," he said.
The governments of other countries that generate significant oil and gas revenues have not gone this route, preferring instead to have independent institutes that use banks to manage assets.
Several deputies have proposed scrapping the establishment of the Russian Financial Agency and instead endowing VEB with the task of managing resources in state funds.
Dmitriyev said that this matter can be discussed, all the more so since VEB is now a state management company and manages pension funds.