OREANDA-NEWS. Mikhail Kuzovlev, President and Chairman of the Management Board of the Bank of Moscow, spoke at a London conference held within the scope of a series of business events under the title Destination Moscow Roadshow 2013. The series of conference has been organised by the Moscow Foreign Trade and International Communications Department. Mikhail Kuzovlev spoke on the role of banks in establishing international financial centres.

The participants in the London conference include head of the Moscow Foreign Trade and International Communications Department Sergey Cheremin, Chairman of the Management Board of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce Roger Munnings, and representatives of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). The framework of the event also included round tables in which representatives of the Bank of Moscow took part.

In his speech, Mikhail Kuzovlev noted that banks constituted the circulatory system of any international financial centre, ensuring streamlined and transparent settlements and providing market participants with a variety of financing tools. In addition, banks play a material role in financing city infrastructure development projects for ensuring their compliance with international financial centre standards. For this reason, the primary task for banks, businesses and the authorities today is to develop the economy of the region and the city’s social and utility infrastructure.

Speaking of the role of the Bank of Moscow, it has always been an active participant in these processes. The Bank took part in organising the unified system of municipal payments for Moscow residents; the Bank of Moscow’s partner is OAO Unified Electronic Trading Floor, an instrument ensuring state procurement order transparency. Within the scope of development of the electronic government, the Bank of Moscow is the acquirer bank for the Moscow state services portal. "We see the value of this project as lowering barriers to business, including through simplification of many procedures involved in executing documents", commented Mikhail Kuzovlev.

He also noted that the Bank of Moscow had been a partner for many years of the Government of Moscow and had long-standing and strong links with many of the capital’s core enterprises. The Bank’s priority task is to expand work with municipal housing and utility enterprises, those in the construction and transport industry of Moscow, these being the enterprises that have a direct impact on the quality of life in the city.