Newspaper headlines on Russian banking this year may have given the impression of a sector in turmoil. The reality, however, is far more complex, with an underlying story of growth and optimism.
In the same month that Sergei Ignatyev, governor of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), appeared on the evening news to reassure Russians that a mini-banking crisis would not spin out of control, a string of foreign banks made multimillion dollar investments into the Russian banking sector: buying leading consumer credit banks, opening investment banks and setting out their stalls to sell mutual funds to small investors.
