MOSCOW, April 8 (UPI) -- As low oil prices and Western-backed economic sanctions hammer Russia, the head of the central bank said it was time to embrace domestic rating agencies.
A draft law regulating Russian credit rating agencies was introduced in February as economic problems became more evident. Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina said at a banking conference in Moscow it was time to develop more credit autonomy.
"We are thinking about gradually moving away from international ratings and developing our own ratings industry with Russian agencies," she said Wednesday.
Ratings agency Moody's in February lowered its assessment of seven Russian financial institutions, including the banking arm of Gazprom, because of the expectation of a "prolonged recessionary environment," in the Russian economy.
The downgrade followed a decision from Moody's to lower the Russian government debt rating to Baa3, the lowest investment grade rating.
Sanctions on banking and energy companies, in conjunction with the low price of oil, have struck a major blow to the Russian economy. The U.S. Treasury Department placed VTB, one of the banks downgraded by Moody's, on its list of Russian entities sanctioned because of the Kremlin's stance on lingering crises in Ukraine.
Andrei Kostin, the head of VTB, last month said the bank was requesting a rating from China's Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Russia's pivot toward the Asia-Pacific offers a buffer against a European Union frustrated with the former Soviet Union's influence in the regional energy sector. The European market gets about a quarter of its gas from Russia, though most of that runs through Ukrainian pipelines.
