MOSCOW — Andrey Kozlov, deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, has said today at the congress of the Association of Russian Banks that he finds the competitive ability of the Russian banking system and a strategy to develop it important issues. He said that with Russia's plans to double the GDP, the country needed to at least double crediting volumes, and to increase the capital of the banking system. To this end, profitability of the banking system has to grow by at least 40 or even 60 percent a year, compared with 20 percent in 2003. At that, Kozlov stated that to increase profitability the country had to enlarge the turnover and to restore confidence in the banking system. The bank margin should be increased, and the cost of operations should be brought down.

He also said that foreign banks accounted for 37 percent of credit to industrial enterprises, and for Russian banks to retrieve this market share and attract new clients, new bank services are to be developed.