Russia’s top borrowers join calls to let banks use domestic ratings

Russia’s top gas producer Gazprom and a raft of other major firms have added to calls for the banking sector to use domestic ratings in implementing new financial regulations, saying this would ease pressure on banks and cut lending rates.

Officials have challenged the way the central bank is instructing lenders to comply with new Basel III regulations.

The finance ministry says the capital buffers banks require under the rules should be set according to ratings by domestic agencies, while the central bank wants to use its own in-house assessments.

“It is very hard to forecast how accessible the external market will be for Russian borrowers for political reasons, so the development of our own financial market, including rating agencies, is timely,” Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Famil Sadygov told Reuters.