YEREVAN, OCTOBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. The possible amendment to be made by Russian legislators in the banking legislation, according to which the government instead of the Central Bank of Russia will regulate the sphere of money transfers is not quite an adequate measure to settle relations with Georgia. Garegin Tosunian, Chairman of the Association of Banks of Russia said this during a press conference on the opening of the 3rd open international interbank conference "Money Transfers, Retail Banking Srvices" held in Yerevan on October 11-14. According to him, there was a discussion on banning the money transfers from Russia to Georgia, but so far no such a ban has been put. G. Tosunian expressed a hope that "reason will prevail in this issue." "Especially as there are international agreements, Russia has signed respective agreements with the IMF, and a liberalized currency legislation is in force in Russia. G. Tosunian underlined that in case of a ban on money transfers from Russia to Georgia "first of all, ordinary citizens will suffer, irrespective of their nationality, including Russian citizens living in Georgia," while the banking system of Russia will not suffer so much. "In general, it would be a bad precedent: politics are politics, but the economy, especially the banking sector should move towards integration and opening of borders," G. Tosunian said. In his opinion, in order to ban the entry of money to some region, restrictions on banking operations is not the most efficient way to fight corruption, as there are many other legal methods to do so. He expressed a hope that no such a ban will be used in practice, at the same time expressing his concern that bans of this kind may be used in future with respect to other countries.

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