Prospects of Transition of the Russian Banking Sector to International Accounting Standards

The issue of financial transparency (in the internationally recognized understanding of the term) receives a growing importance in the overall market-oriented reform of the present day Russian society and attracts increasing attention from policymakers. The national banking system plays a pivotal role in insuring the financial transparency of the entire national economy and, therefore, the reform of accounting in the banking sector, along with achieving transparency in the stock market and accounting in production and trade, became a political issue and a matter of special concern for the Russian establishment. The transition of the Russian banking sector and the economy in general to International Accounting Standards (IAS) is one of the important conditions for Russia to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well.

The international community also does not play the role of an indifferent observer of the developments in the Russian banking sector criticizing the Russian authorities for delays in introducing internationally acceptable accounting principles on one hand and facilitating the transition by a variety of international donor programs on the other hand (Galuzina & Pupshis, 2005).