President of the Association of Russian Banks (ARB) Garegin Tosunyan does not want to voluntarily resign from his post; accordingly, some credit organizations intend to withdraw from ARB, following eight largest banks, Kommersant daily reported on Friday, quoting the top executives of the largest banks, RIA News reports.

Those, who do not agree with Tosunyan’s policy, plan to move to ‘Russia’ Association, radically reforming it. The current president of ‘Russia’ Association Anatoly Aksakov can share management with Georgy Luntovsky, who will resign from the post of the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank in September. Tosunyan continues to insist that what is happening in ARB is not the reason for reforms within the association, the newspaper reports.

In July, eight of the largest Russian banks – Sberbank, VTB, VTB 24, Rosselhozbank, Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank, “FC Otkrytie”, and Binbank – reported about their withdrawal from the association’s position on certain issues, including CB’s activity on clearing the banking sector. The disagreement of banks resulted in some theses, contained in the annual report of the association, which was presented at ARB’s Congress in this March. Later, Alfa-Bank reported that some credit organizations discuss the prospects of creation of a new association, alternative to ARB.

According to the information of newspaper sources, Bars JSC, Zenit and its subsidiary Lipetskcombank, Sovcombank, Absolut-Bank, Sviaz-bank and Rosevrobank may withdraw from ARB. The extraordinary meeting of ‘Russia’ Association should happen on August 18; it is planned to discuss the parameters of the reform of association. It is planned to approve the candidate of Luntovsky for the President of Association, and Anatoly Aksakov – the chairman of the board of directors.

According to the reform, there will be set some entry qualification requirement for the participants of the association in order it represents the interests of sustainable banks. These requirements will also apply to current participants of Russia; that is why it is planned to establish a transitional period, according to one of the participants of the discussion. According to other source, this initiative is approved by the regulator, which supports qualitative changes in ‘Russia’ Association.