Russian-Venezuelan bank building to start operations before year-end

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, accompanied by his colleague from Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, said today the end of the year should complete the formalities for the creation of Russian-Venezuelan bank to finance joint development projects.

"The Russian-Venezuelan bank be set up before year end," the Kremlin chief, said prtensa.cnia conference in

Earlier, Russian Deputy Finance Dmitry Pankin, said the bank's authorized capital reached $ 4,000 million and that Russian banks VTB and Gasprombank would own 51% of the shares.

According to Chavez, delegations from both countries work in the final stages of the establishment of the bank to commence operations towards the end of 2009 or early 2010, so that the new bank to finance projects including oil and gas .