CBR to Stop Prodding Major Banks to IPOs

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is considering no longer recommending that major banks issue IPOs for 10% of their stocks, said first deputy CBR chairman Andrei Kozlov. The banking community has raised serious objections to the suggestion and refrained from supporting it. Last April, the CBR made proposals to stimulate higher Russian bank capitalisation and to simplify the procedure of taking them to the open market.