OREANDA-NEWS. On October 11, 2007 Andrei Kostin, VTB Chairman and CEO spoke to the students of the Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation on the topic of “The Banking system of Russia: present, past and future”. In his speech, the VTB chief executive focused on the problems and prospects of the Russian banking system development, changes in the Russian banks’ activities for the past years, and also new tasks facing the Russian banking sector, reported the press-centre of VTB Bank.

As for modern banking system, Andrei Kostin said, that today, it is one of the most dynamic sectors of the Russian economy. With 7% annual average growth rates of economy, bank lending annual growth rates exceed 20%, assets - 12%, and equity capital - 10%. In absolute terms, banking system assets reached RUR 18 trillion (USD 720 billion), equity capital – RUR 2.4 trillion (USD 90 billion), credits to households and enterprises – RUR 10 trillion (USD 400 billion).

At the same time, the VTB chief executive admitted that the Russian banking sector faces a number of problems. In particular, the quality of bank assets, the weakness of resource base, lack of long-term financial resources in the country. However, according to Andrei Kostin, the Russian banking system has all the necessary foundations for further accelerating growth rates and improving stability, in particular, favorable macroeconomic conditions, diversified ownership structure, high potential demand for banking services in the country.

The speech made by Andrei Kostin, VTB Chairman and CEO, was the first among the planned set of lectures on the Russian banking system, for the third- and forth-year students of the Finance Academy specializing in finance and credit. Thus, VTB Bank hopes to assist in improving personnel training for finance and banking sector.