Incoming governor holds bank’s first press conference; launches new refinancing facility.

Qatar’s investment in VTB helps future deals between Russia and the Gulf, but relations will remain difficult.

Russia’s largely https://dat.euromoneydigital.com/authoring/journalist?article=047ac601-56d9-4410-8935-dd211e6a899a#tab10state-owned banking sector needs greater competition to help catalyze private sector investment as the economy enters a new era of permanently weaker growth and lower oil prices, say analysts.

Sberbank CEO German Gref says he has led Russia’s biggest bank through a thorough transformation. It has grown onto the international stage and bulked up in investment banking. What are his objectives, and how does he see its role at home and in the region?

Cyprus’s problems stem in part from doing business in Russia. But the Russian state’s attitude doesn’t make keeping money at home enticing.

Sberbank chief German Gref, who – as the former economics minister – was the boss of Central Bank of Russia governor-designate Elvira Nabiullina, says the bank’s dominance in the country’s economic affairs won’t exert undue influence over monetary policymaking.

Putin gets a strong but pliant central bank governor in Elvira Nabiullina. She might please other constituents too.

Once seasonal rouble demand for tax payments has passed later this month, the currency should suffer, given Russia’s close links to Cyprus.

The ramifications of selling contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) to retail buyers could be brutally illustrated by the bailout of Cyprus’s banking sector, while ties with Russia complicate strategy.

First Eurolira deals; Eurorouble bonds in vogue

Rosneft signs second tranche; Maroc Telecom next

The Russian government’s desire to build an international financial centre in Moscow is genuine. However, the government’s market infrastructure reforms are also driven by other short-term and long-term motivations. Short-term concerns centre on a reluctance to lose out to rival markets in central and eastern Europe. “Other CEE countries are competing hard for foreign investment and investors,” says Alex Krunic, head of product sales for direct custody and clearing at JPMorgan. “Poland clearly has positive momentum: it is number one for IPOs in Europe in 2012, number four by value of IPOs and number nine by cash equity value.”

There are good strategic reasons for Sberbank to be concerned about the growth of such operations as Tinkoff and Home Credit: and good reason for a counter-attack. Tinkoff, Home Credit and Russian Standard are all at their strongest outside the main cities: regions where Sberbank, as the former state savings bank, has in some cases had almost a monopoly.

A central securities depository, liberalization of the local bond market, movement to T+2 settlement and a stock exchange merger – it’s all very welcome in Russia’s capital markets. But work remains to be done if its infrastructure is to catch up with its peers.

A trio of successful listings out of emerging Europe has boosted bankers’ hopes of an equity primary markets renaissance in 2013, with prospects for further supply from Russia, Turkey and beyond.

Oleg Tinkov is at the forefront of the consumer-banking boom that is changing Russian finance. Tinkoff Credit Systems encapsulates all that is innovative – and risky – about the sector. This bank and others like it have everything the state banks lack. But in Russia that can mean trouble.

Russia must employ careful persistence in its movement towards a floating exchange rate.

$45 billion cash for TNK BP; Bond markets wait for more

John Hyman named CEO; Jennings refocuses on Africa

Depository law proves final hurdle; OFZ spreads tighten on foreign buying

A wave of lower tier 2 issuance will not deal with Russian banks’ strained capital levels.

The opening up of Russia’s bond markets is a game changer that will boost the rouble, according to Société Générale.

State raises $5.2 billion; Clears way for Promsvyazbank, VTB

Corporates looking to transact USDRUB could be the first group to benefit from new signs that the country’s domestic currency market is becoming more open.

Alexei Kudrin thinks he has a solution to Russia’s twin troubles: anti-Putin street protests and an oil-financed pot of state patronage that is rapidly running out. The former finance minister tells Euromoney about his programme for reform and what he is doing to see it implemented.

As president Vladimir Putin enters his third term, one of the main critics of the political and corruption risks in Russia is Bill Browder, chief executive of London hedge fund Hermitage Capital.

Russia’s finance minister is, in the words of his predecessor, a rare example of a liberal in the government. But can he do enough, quickly enough, to shore up the government’s finances in its post-election spending hangover?

VTB’s $1 billion perpetual bond this summer – the first in Russia – was partly modelled on a similar issue by Banco do Brasil in January, says Herbert Moos, VTB’s CFO.

PPF exits Nomos; VTB backs $1.5 billion buyout