MOSCOW — The banking strategy may be integrated with the strategy of financial markets development, Arkadiy Dvorkovich, chief of the Russian President's expert department, has said at a banking conference, organized by the Rossiya (Russia) association. He added that the banking strategy, which the Russian government was now considering, would either be adopted soon with minor corrections or would be integrated with the financial markets development strategy being prepared by Oleg Vyugin, chief of Russia's financial markets service. If the latter option is chosen, this process may take a few months, Dvorkovich thinks. The expert remarked that a trend towards consolidation of the supervisory agencies had already started.

"We will be working on creating a common regulator, which would specifically be responsible for the banking sector's regulation," Dvorkovich noted. He pointed out that the Cabinet needed specific decisions relating to the banking sector's development as soon as this year, as some projects were included in the banking sector's development strategy. The banking strategy has long been prepared but it needs some changes, Dvorkovich said. "We are also hoping that we will be able to form a package of documents within the next few months, which will boost the banking system's development," the expert added.