There are no foreign bank branches in operation in Russia, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov said at an international banking forum in Sochi on Friday

There are no foreign bank branches in operation in Russia, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov said at an international banking forum in Sochi on Friday. The last remaining branch, belonging to Armenian bank Anelik, was re-registered into a subsidiary in August, he said. The Central Bank insists that foreign banks can only operate in Russia as subsidiary banks. The issue of opening branches is of particular interest to German bankers because a quarter of the foreign capital in the Russian banking system is of German origin, Kozlov said. Other countries have also inquired about this, including colleagues in talks about Russia joining the WTO, he added. The Russian Association of Regional Banks organized the forum, called Russian Banks in the Twenty-first Century.