OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2011. Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon. I would like to begin our meeting by carrying out a pleasant duty. It is my pleasure to award Vladimir Zhuchkov, chief of staff of the Central Bank’s chairman, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th Class. Mr Zhuchkov, please accept our sincere congratulations.

Vladimir Zhuchkov: I serve the Fatherland!

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Today we will speak about our plans to develop and strengthen Russia’s banking sector. We will discuss the development strategy until 2015 designed to achieve this. This is already the third document of its type. We have been consistently adopting them and working to implement them over previous years.

Improving the reliability and competitiveness of Russia’s national credit system and establishing an up-to-date market of banking services are, without exaggeration, among the key priorities of Russia’s economic policy. As I have just said, the government and the Central Bank have been working for years already to address these issues. The strategies that I’ve mentioned were adopted for the periods from 2001 to 2005 and from 2005 to 2008.

Laws have been passed to make our banking market more transparent and to establish equitable conditions for Russian and foreign credit organisations. We have been stimulating the growth of banks’ capitalisation and the expansion of the banking services provided. We have taken systemic measures to revive our banking sector despite heavy resistance, and we’ve been getting rid of various dubious and semi-criminal organisations in this sector.

For example, 44 banks had their licenses revoked in 2009, and 27 licenses were revoked in 2010.

We know that the Central Bank and the bank’s chairman have been very careful and prudent in their actions. We have discussed this many times with Mr Ignatyev (Central Bank Chairman Sergei Ignatyev). I’m convinced that these actions were absolutely justified given the fact that regional financial organisations in particular need support since they often work very closely with their customers.

As a result, Russia’s banking system has indeed accumulated a margin of safety and sustainability. And this did play a positive role during the global financial crisis. A repeat of 1998, when numerous banks went bankrupt and many people lost their savings, was averted.