OREANDA-NEWS. December 14, 2007. Founders of the Eurasian Club of Bankers (ECB) convened for their first meeting on December 12 in Almaty, Bank TuranAlem's press center announced. The meeting is an initiatory step towards the implementation of the idea of President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. As reported, the idea to set up the ECB was first floated at the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg held on June 10, 2007. The financial and banking communities of the CIS member nations have readily responded to it. Given the tasks assigned ECB founders have discussed and signed its constituent documents and outlined the 2008 action plan. ECB management bodies were formed to make it efficient. Renowned financier, a deputy chair of Kazkommertsbank board of directors, Daulet Sembaev was elected as a president of the Eurasian Club of Bankers.

Founders of the Eurasian Club of Bankers are Kazkommertsbank, Bank TuranAlem, Bank CenterCredit, Alliance Bank, the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan, the Association of Russian Banks and CIS Financial Banking Group.

The ECB Board of Guardians is composed of chairman of Bank TuranAlem management board Roman Solodchenko, chairman of Alliance Bank board of directors Margulan Seysembaev, director of Kazakh Economy Research and Monitoring Center Arystan Yesentugelov, deputy chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Medet Sartbaev, deputy chairwoman of the Financial Supervision Agency of Kazakhstan Yelena Bakhmutova, deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Konstantin Korischenko and chairman of the Association of Russian Banks Garegin Tosyunyan.

The founders have decided to headquarter the Club in Almaty.

ECB founders have admitted that arranging direct relations between market participants in the CIS is among optimal paths to handle existing problems, lifting barriers that hamper their mutually beneficial cooperation. In this regard, participants of the meeting have allotted their main task to facilitate integration processes in the CIS. At that, considering the banking sector being the most fullfledged element of financial systems in the CIS countries, they have agreed to create the club of bankers in the opening stage, and then to expand it to the club of financiers.

The founders opine in general that the club nature of the institution paves the way for an informal dialogue to address burning questions, sift through the current circumstances and outlook for each country individually and within the CIS as well, to produce full-scale studies on their bases as well as recommendations and other documents intended to make Club’s activities effect-oriented.

Through consolidation of their efforts, ECB members intend to contribute to effectuating the tasks assigned by the heads of nations. In particular these are stepping up integration processes between financial and banking institutions of the CIS; involvement of government agencies and integration structures in decision making, including with an eye to attune fiscal legislation and streamline currency and financial relations.

With intent to push forward interests of the Eurasian Club of Bankers and introduce it to the world community, it has been decided to send a collective letter on ECB startup to the CIS presidents as well as the Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee and the EurAsEC Secretary General.