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Provide Banking Service, Info About Technology, Investment, CommercialCBR to tackle banking sector problems15 / 12 / 2005
"Economic upsets are not expected, providing a favorable situation for clearing up current problems," Andrei Kozlov said. There have recently been sharp improvements in the quality of work and the mentality of bankers, he said. The Russian banking system is moving on to a new phase where the competition war will gather pace, the deputy chairman said. Under the new conditions, the Central Bank needs to streamline its relations with commercial banks, he said. Senior banking officials and the Russian government have recently been voicing their concerns about the services provided by branches of foreign banks on the domestic market and have called for them to be banned. A senior banking official said it was naive to expect foreign banks to bring cheap loans to Russia's cash-stripped economy. They lend money mainly to corporate heavyweights, so small and medium-sized businesses can only rely on domestic banks for loans, he said. President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, "The Russian government agrees with our [Russia's] banking community that branches of foreign banks and their activities in Russia should now be restricted, and in practice prohibited." "This is due not only to the competitive war, but also to the need to monitor the movement of funds and capital under modern conditions," the president said. Access to the Russian financial market is a key point of contention in negotiations on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization. Washington is pressuring Moscow to let American banks and insurance companies open their branches in Russia. Additional news for banking service can be found at En.rian.ru. Italian banking scandal haunts ECBBy Nicholas Rigillo Dec 15, 2005, 14:59 GMT
Fazio was in Frankfurt on Thursday to attend a meeting of the General Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), of which he is a prominent member. According to reports in Italy, the normally routine meeting was expected to see the ECB launch a formal inquiry into claims that Fazio received expensive gifts worth tens of thousands of euros from Gianpiero Fiorani, former chief executive of Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI), who is currently in prison in Milan on charges including criminal association, embezzlement and fraud. Accepting gifts whose value is 'non-negligible' is a clear violation of the ECB's internal code of conduct. Everyone in Frankfurt still remembers the case of Ernst Welteke, the Bundesbank chief and ECB council member forced to resign last year after accepting a 7,600-euro free stay in Berlin's top Adlon Hotel, courtesy of a German bank. But what probably concerns the ECB the most is not Fazio's brand- new Swiss watch or his wife's gold necklace but his prominent role in the whole Fiorani affair. According to prosecutors in Milan, Fazio betrayed his institutional role as referee of the country's banking system in order to help out his longtime friend Fiorani. Fiorani's network of protectors involves 'external and institutional figures... who have remained inert despite numerous and detailed complaints by citizens and consumer groups', judge Clementina Forleo wrote in a clear reference to Fazio contained in Fiorani's arrest warrant. Once a part-time journalist and clerk in a small provincial bank, Fiorani had became the country's most talked about banker as he launched into an ambitious bid for Antonveneta - one of Italy's biggest banks - now in the hands of Holland's ABN Amro. Prosecutors argue that he could never have achieved such a rapid career advance without the help of influential people like Fazio, whom according to wiretaps Fiorani addressed by his nickname 'Tonino'. Details of the Milan investigation published by Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica on Thursday suggest Fiorani happily stole money from his clients, and corrupted politicians with offers of unusually favourable overdraft facilities in a bid to pursue his ends. The European Commission has already launched legal proceedings against Italy over allegations that Fazio favoured Italian credit institutions in at least two cross-border take-over bids - one of which involves Antonveneta. Meanwhile, an analyst at a major credit-rating agency, Standard & Poor's, has said the Fiorani affair 'clearly damages the reputation and credibility of the Bank of Italy'. Critics point to Fazio's inability to prevent the Parmalat scandal or to stop the sale of bogus Argentinian and company bonds by Italian banks as evidence that he should have stood down a long time ago. Fazio, for his part, is refusing to acknowledge responsibility, insisting his conscience is clear. 'I have always applied the law correctly. If Fiorani has done something illegal, we have nothing to do with it,' Fazio has said. Whether the ECB will be happy with that kind of answer remains to be seen. Other resources are available at the News.monstersandcritics.com |
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MOSCOW, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Central Bank does not expect economic upsets in the near future and intends to resolve the existing problems in the banking sector, the bank's first deputy chairman said Thursday. 
Rome - The arrest of an Italian banker accused of venturing into shady deals thanks to the protection of European Central Bank council member Antonio Fazio and others has again brought the whiff of scandal to the door of one of Europe's most prestigious institutions.