The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has no plans to increase the benchmark which requires the evaluation of financial stability of bank share buyers, said Elena Muzyka, CBR bank licensing department’s deputy head. Presently, financial stability is to be evaluated only if a buyer acquires more than R10 million in shares. Muzyka says experience shows that there is no need to raise the benchmark. The top official cited VTB as an example: when VTB was placing its shares, 113,000 individuals bought shares worth up to R600,000 and 9,500 investors paid R600,000 to R10m.
Source: BANKIR.RU, June 8, 2007
