OREANDA-NEWS  Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko said that she had instructed the House budget committee to consider the possibility of tightening control over the activities of microfinance organizations (MFOs).

"We agreed, and I instructed the budget and Financial Markets Committee to once again review measures to tighten control over their activities (microfinance organizations - ed.), for legality, for such wild cases that appear, and so on," Matvienko said at a press conference following the spring parliamentary session.

Matvienko added that Russia may consider the possibility of tougher penalties for illegal activities of MFOs.

"We will see, perhaps we will even strengthen these penalties, more serious, for the work of such (illegal - ed.) microfinance organizations," Matvienko said.

During a meeting of the Council for the Development of the Financial Market under the Federation Council on Tuesday, Chairman Matvienko suggested that the Central Bank completely stop the work of microfinance organizations in Russia, noting that it is impossible to see "terrible tragedies of people who take loans from microfinance organizations, give apartments, big money." She suggested that we consider whether it is possible to close the MFO. The head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, in turn, replied that banning legal, controlled microfinance organizations would lead to their withdrawal into the shadows and harm people who cannot take out loans from banks.