financial literacy. we also consider accessibility of financial services to be an important condition for proper functioning of the financial market. another field of our concern is the development of the national payment system. in less than a year after the decision was taken, a processing and clearing centre was created and interrussian transactions of international payment systems were transferred there. currently, we are actively developing our own payment card. in conclusion i would like to say that the integration of crimea into the russian financial and payment system became an important part of our job last year. we implemented accelerated transfer of settlements from hryvnias into rubles. initially, in compliance with the law, we had to complete this process by 1 january 2015, but it became evident that such a long period of circulation of two currencies is unreasonable. as a result the transition was implemented in two months. as many as 530 branches of russian banks have been opened on the territory of crimea and are ready to offer their customers a complete range of services. cash circulation has been arranged and the necessary amount of coins and banknotes has been delivered. a few words about internal changes in the bank of russia. in 2014, the organisational structure of the bank of russia underwent serious changes aimed at increasing our efficiency and optimising the workforce. the improvement of the bank of russia territorial structure initiated in 2014 was completed in january 2015. as many as 79 main branches and national banks were transformed into seven main branches with subordinated divisions. due to the accession of the republic of crimea and bis central bankers ’ speeches the federal city of sevastopol to the russian federation, in 2014 a division for the republic of crimea and a division for the city of sevastopol were established. resulting from the structural optimisation held in 2014, the bank of russia cut 3, 500 jobs or 5. 3 % and its workforce amounted to 61, 800 employees as of early 2015. i would like to note that the number of employees was reduced, while the bank of russia obtained vast powers as a megaregulator. however, we will continue reducing the workforce. in conclusion i would like to say that the bank of russia faces challenging tasks in a challenging period in the country ’ s history. we completely assume our responsibility. i am convinced that there are all the prerequisites to put the economy on the track of sustainable growth while ensuring the necessary macroeconomic and financial stability in joining our efforts. thank you very much for your attention. bis

and cash withdrawal through the banking system has declined. we make use of the powers conferred on us under the amendments to the law approved by the parliament. i would like to express special gratitude to you for that. we progressively stamp out suspicious transactions from the banking sector. our current objective is to introduce end - to - end supervision over both credit institutions and non - bank bis central bankers ’ speeches organisations through implementing our functions of a megaregulator in order to prevent the spillover of suspicious transactions from the banking to the non - banking sector. the last year was important as the first full year in our capacity of megaregulator. we completed the transition period nine months earlier than expected. along with internal restructuring at the bank of russia, we kept working on legislative initiatives. we continue developing financial market infrastructure by creating new and improving existing instruments. high - quality improvements in the system of financial market regulation and supervision are impossible without legislative amendments. non - governmental pension funds had to be incorporated and join the guarantee system. we inspected non - governmental pension funds before their accession to the guarantee system. as a result, 26 funds joined the system. the supervision obliged many funds to improve the quality of their assets and to make the ownership transparent, so that the guarantee system incorporated only resilient funds capable of ensuring safety of pension savings. we will further monitor and supervise these funds very closely. some words about insurance. we applied new laws on compulsory motor third party liability insurance ( osago ) and raised the tariffs. the decision is not very popular, but it is necessary to ensure the economic efficiency of osago. at the same time, we are looking for new growth areas together with the market. in particular, this is about developing life and medical insurance. we also had to take supervisory measures. as a recent example licence of a major market participant was restricted for two weeks. certainly, the licence restriction of such a large player was an outstanding event for the market. as a regulator we realised the importance of such a step, but we consider it necessary for the benefit of consumers to implement all the available measures to restore order and eliminate unlawful practices such as imposing services, non - applying bonus - malus ratio, etc. we have established a consumer right protection service, and we pay special attention to processing claims. we will try to make the process of lodging claims convenient for citizens and will try to respond to claims in an efficient manner. one of our important objectives is to work out a concept of