Super watchdog could oversee Russia’s money markets

The G7 Finance Ministers have called for tighter regulation of money markets, as well as more international co-operation to deal with the credit crisis.

Russia's Finance Ministry may agree on that, but is not ready for an overhaul at home.

The G7 is calling for a global response to the credit crisis, arguing that tougher capital requirements for banks and stronger co-operation between national regulators are necessary.

But Russia's Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin is not so keen to shake things up at home.

The government had been discussing plans to replace the country’s three financial market watchdogs with one regulator.

But Kudrin now says it may not be the best way to increase transparency, and requires more consideration.

Several experts, though, believe a Russian mega regulator will help reduce financial crime and protect it from the ongoing problems on global markets.

Trust Bank’s economist Evgeny Nadorshin says now is not the time to change things at home.

"We have not yet come into any crisis according to our financial regulating rules, at least not such a deep one like in the United States and we can protect ourselves now from problems in the future.

“Changing the heart of the rules and doing as much as possible for improvement of the financial regulator of the whole system would be really beneficial for us right now,” Nadorshin said.