There is no such thing as a free market in global financial mess that has unfolded. All financial institutions in the West are intertwined with the Govenrment in many ways, that the notion of Banks being the "private enterprise" is ridiculous. IMF clearly does not know what they are talking about. In China, NPLs exist in State banks, but those NPL's can be wiped out by China's petty cash or just a rounding error in their FOREX reserves. The issue of NPL is so cleverly being injected into the talk of BAD ASSETS. And it is the quantity of bad assets that banks still hide that is really part of the problem confronting Western financial systems. To suggest that Russian banks should be subject to market, and that they can buy such risky assets mostly Western banks are hiding, is riduculous. To quote: " Also, it can be investors that see a commercial interest in these bad assets. Investment banks that can operate in this market in the interests of some investors that are not present in a particular geographical region. These can be international asset management companies, international investment banks, that act as intermediaries to the international investors’ society.” Banks as "intermediaries" to the "international investors' society"? Sounds like an afternoon tea club. This is a market Russia should stay AWAY from ----- FAR, FAR AWAY. Yes, everybody would like to UNLOAD their worthless, ridiculously leveraged CDO's. This would be a way for everyone on earth taking some of the garbage, and help poor Goldman Saks and others dispose some of their secret stash. Why would not all banks first DISCLOSE how much of ALL bad assets they have, not just non-performing loans. As of today, the total leveraged paper in banks is probably still around 300 TRILLION in spite of deleveraging. And the whole world's GDP is little over 50 TRILLION. The excess need to be wiped out, not sold or bought by Russia.