Russian govt sees no requests to sell major subsidiaries of foreign banks

MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) - There are currently no applications for the sale of major Russian banks by foreign owners, there are only applications for small lenders, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev told reporters at the State Duma.

"There are a couple of applications of some insignificant banks that I don't even remember the names of, honestly. Some sort of entirely small ones that I didn't even know existed, but there are no major applications," Moiseyev said.

Moiseyev is involved in the work of a subcommittee of the government commission for foreign investment that reviews applications for transactions involving nonresidents from "unfriendly" jurisdictions that are prohibited under current regulation. The subcommittee is chaired by Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.