President Vladimir Putin: Vladimir Alexandrovich [Dmtriyev], how is the bank working in its new capacity?
President of Vnesheconombank Vladimir Dmitriyev: Work is going full steam ahead.
The bank was established on your initiative last year as the main financial development institution. A memorandum on the bank’s financial policy was adopted in July. The decision to increase the bank’s capital by 180 billion roubles at the end of last year was particularly important.
The bank’s supervisory board is made up of deputy prime ministers and key government ministers responsible for finance, the economy, industry, energy and transport. The supervisory board is headed by the Prime Minister. We have already begun drafting and approving specific programmes for the bank to provide financial support for economic reforms aimed at innovation, infrastructure development, attracting investment and providing overall support for development institutions. We see ourselves as the main financial instrument in this area.
Vladimir Putin: To put things in more concrete terms, what is the state of your loans portfolio?
Vladimir Dmitriyev: Our loans portfolio stood at around 200 billion roubles at the end of last year. Loans made for a period of more than three years account for 68 percent of our portfolio as compared to an average of 20 percent in the banking sector as a whole. In other words, we really are making long-term loans to capital-intensive projects that correspond to our bank’s main priorities.