Colin Stone has left Moscow Narodny Bank to join Standard Chartered in London. Stone was a senior trader at Moscow Narodny and used to work alongside Gerard Keating.

The Central Bank of Russia has started preparing the sale of its foreign subsidiaries – one of which is Moscow Narodny. Several years ago, this demand of the International Monetary Fund was strongly opposed by the then head of the Russian central bank Viktor Gerashchenko and a number of government officials.

After long debates, the sale of the central bank’s foreign assets was included in the Strategy for the Development of the Russian Banking Sector. The central bank’s current leadership indicates that it is going to meet this target. The central bank’s top officials believe that the bank should not fulfil functions not intended for the institution of a central bank, and this is necessary for the creation of a competitive financial services market.

Besides Moscow Narodny, another subsidiary of the central bank particularly attractive to potential buyers should be the Commercial Bank for Northern Europe-Eurobank, based in Paris.