Eurosystem and Bank of Russia launch cooperation programme in the areas of banking supervision and internal audit

The Eurosystem – comprising the European Central Bank (ECB) and the 15 national central banks of the euro area – and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) launched today a three-year cooperation programme in the areas of banking supervision and internal audit. The banking supervision component of the programme will aim at enhancing the institutional capacity of the Bank of Russia to maintain the stability of the Russian banking system. It will focus on the transition of the Russian banking system to the Basel II principles, drawing on the experience of the Basel II implementation in the European Union. The internal audit component of the programme will aim to support the Bank of Russia’s risk-based internal audit function, through training by and consultations with the experts of the Eurosystem.

The programme was announced today in Moscow by Lucas D. Papademos, Vice-President of the ECB, Gennady G. Melikyan, First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia and Marc Franco, Head of the European Commission Delegation to Russia. The European Union has assigned €3 million to the programme within the framework of the EU-Russia cooperation programme.

The implementation of the programme will start on 1 April 2008. From the Eurosystem, the programme will involve the ECB as well as the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Bank of Greece, the Banco de España, the Banque de France, the Banca d’Italia, De Nederlandsche Bank, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and Suomen Pankki – Finlands Bank.