Rus

Association of Banks of Russia

About the Association

The Association “Russia” was established on December 13, 1990. The Agreement on the establishment of the Russian Association of Joint-Stock Commercial Industrial Construction Banks "Russia" was signed on that day. The Agreement was signed by the heads of 37 commercial banks formed on the basis of territorial offices and branches of Promstroibank of the USSR and of the 13 its regional offices. Due to the conception of the Association formation and because of the geographical location of credit institutions entered into it the new organization received national status. Thus, the Association became the first Russian nationwide banking union.

The development of the Association was in step with the development of the Russian banking system. The crisis of 1998, growing role and increasing importance of regional banks, changes in membership, actual joining together of credit institutions of the most regions of the country dictated the rationality to change the name of the Association. In 1999, it was renamed into the Association of Regional Banks of Russia (Association "Russia").

Today the Association "Russia" unites more than 300 members, including large backbone credit institutions of national scale, banks with foreign capital participation, as well as small and medium-sized regional banks providing access to financial services throughout Russia, non-banking organizations providing services to financial and banking organizations, and also including public organizations, mass media.

The Association "Russia" is the first federal banking union that over the years has rallied the ranks of Russian bankers, built relationships between the banking business and the government, effectively pursued the policy of banks interests protection, resolves regional problems at the federal level, actively promotes formation of the legislative and regulatory framework of Russian credit institutions activities.

Due to the variety of membership, the Association "Russia" expresses the opinion of not a separate group of financial institutions, but a significant part of the country's banking system. And its activities are aimed at the development of the entire financial services market.

Association "Russia" is the center of the banking community analytical and expert work. Members of the Association actively participate in the development of coordinated positions on the problems of the Russian banking system at the meetings of the Council and the Committees of the Association, the Advisory Council, the Coordinating Council of the Association's representatives in the Federal Districts and Regions of the Russian Federation. At the initiative of the Association, the International Coordinating Council of Banking Associations of the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, the Public Council on Information Policy in the Russian Financial and Banking Sector have been established and actively operate.

Association "Russia" successfully participates in the formation of the legislative and regulatory framework that determines the working conditions of credit institutions. The Association's principal proposals have been taken into account in the preparation of laws on banks and banking activity, on deposit insurance and on credit history bureaus, regulatory documents of the Bank of Russia and the Government of Russia.

Many years of fruitful work had been consolidated into a single document - the Concept of the Russian Banking System Development till 2020, which was presented at the XXIII General Annual Meeting of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia. It brings together all the proposals improving legislative and regulatory framework governing the activities of credit institutions on the territory of Russia, and also there are outlined the most important directions of the banking system development, such as: increasing of the financial literacy level of the population and access to financial services, refinancing mechanism development and simplifying access to liquidity for banks, including long-term liquidity, involvement of non-financial assets to the turnover, creation of an effective securities market, development of innovative directions on the financial market. All this will allow Russia to become a global financial center.

In September 2017, the Association was renamed into the Association of Banks of Russia.

The activity of the Association "Russia" is aimed at:

- increasing of the capitalization of banks and creating of the conditions for the formation of long-term investment resources;

- building of confidence of investors, depositors and primarily of population to the domestic banking sector;

- reducing of the banking services costs and increasing of the banking business efficiency;

- ensuring equal competition conditions for all credit institutions, including state-controlled banks;

The main work front of the Association is attraction of capital to regions, creation of partnership opportunities for large and regional banks, protection and development of regional banking markets, credit institutions. We will use more actively all our authorized opportunities and our federal level to solve problems, and defend interests of our members all over the country.

Contacts
Svetlana Porskova

Head of International relations department, Association of banks of Russia

Svetlana Porskova

+7 (495) 785-2990 ext. 120