Antitrust head says worried over Russian banking competition

MOSCOW, Dec 11 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is worried about competition in the banking sector because the rights of private banks are compromised, head of the authority Igor Artemyev said at a meeting with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday.

Chairman of the Financial Markets Committee of the Chamber Vladimir Gamza said that state-run banks have an 80% banking market share and banks have a 90% share of the financial market.

Artemyev said, “We still hope that sooner or later we will switch to de-monopolization from monopolization… And the government is making decisions with this intent … But … foreign policy, the sanctions, defense and security is now a priority restricting the number of financial institutions very strongly. But we are living in such a period.”

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