Russia, Liechtenstein financial services seal cooperation deal

ZURICH, March 14 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Federal Financial Markets
Service and Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority signed a memorandum of cooperation on Sunday.
The heads of the two countries' financial services Vladimir Milovidov and Michael Lauber put their signatures to the document on the sidelines of the Russia Economic and Financial Forum that opened in Switzerland on Sunday.
"This memorandum meets requirements of the International Organization of Securities Commissions," Milovidov said. "It is based on the IOSCO principles and its targets are cooperation among regulators and supervisory information exchange."
"This decision coincides with Russia's intention to enter the
international financial market regulation standard and come closer to the creation of a competitive international financial centre in Russia," he said.
Prospects for the creation of an international financial centre and peculiarities of financial and banking market evolution were the forum's main issues on the agenda.
VTB 24 President Mikhail Zadornov regretted in an interview with
Itar-Tass that Russia's bank credits "grow not as fast as we would like them to be."
"Over the past year retail credits increased by 14.5 percent and the
total credit portfolio grew by 11.5 percent," he said. "This is slightly
higher than the inflation rate. We would like to have more."