Central Bank of Russia may allow small banks not to prepare financial statements under IFRS - Nabiullina

ANOSINO (Moscow Region). March 2 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is considering the possibility of allowing smaller-sized banks to not prepare financial statements under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said.

"We are now considering the following ideas: maybe banks with assets of no more than 50 billion rubles, not very large banks, should be allowed to not submit IFRS," Nabiullina said at the annual meeting of representatives of credit institutions with the leadership of the Central Bank, organized by the Association of Banks of Russia.

Banks are now required to draw up and submit reports under IFRS to the regulator with a full auditor's report, she said. "But the disclosure of the information is voluntary here and, moreover, with the obligatory exclusion of sensitive information, it is what is called a short report," Nabiullina noted.

The regulator is also now working on bringing IFRS reserves closer to Russian Accounting Standards for the purpose of having calculation standards. "This is something the banks have also been paying attention to," the head of the Central Bank said.