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IGNATIEV, Sergei Mikhailovich

Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation

Sergei Mikhailovich Ignatiev (Сергей Михайлович Игнатьев) is the current chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (since March, 2002), and is a member of the bank's board of directors. In the past, Ignatiev has served as Deputy Minister for Finance, Deputy Minister of the Economy and Presidential Aide on Economic Issues. He holds a PhD (Kandidat Nauk) in economics and has served as a university lecturer.

Sergei Ignatiev was born on January 10th, 1948 in Leningrad. In 1967, he graduated from the Leningrad Electrical Power Technical School. In 1969, having served in the army, Ignatiev became a techician-serviceman at the Leningrad trust "Hydroelectricmontage". In 1975, he graduated from the Faculty of Economics at Moscow State University; in 1978, he completed his postgraduate studies and defended his master's thesis. From 1978 to 1988 Ignatiev worked as an assistant lecturer, and then as a lecturer and senior teacher at the Leningrad Institute of Soviet Trade. In 1988 he transferred to the Leningrad Financial and Economic Institute. In 1991 he was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance of the Russian Federation.

In 1992 Ignatiev was appointed as Deputy Minister of Finance; in the same year, he became vice-president of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Less than a year later, Ignatiev left his post at the Central Bank, citing difficulties in a working relationship with the Bank's head, Viktor Gerashchenko. In 1993 Ignatiev received the post of Deputy Minister of Economy of the Russian Federation. In 1996 Ignatiev has left this post, following his appointment as presidential aide on economic issues. In 1997 he became the first deputy to the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation. In this role, Ignatiev supervised a credit policy and entered into a working group on reform of the state bank system.

In March, 2002 he was made chairman of the Central Bank of Russia. In November, 2005 he was reappointed to this post for a second term.

In January, 2007, Ignatiev's name began to appear across the media in connection with a legal investigation about murder of the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank Andrei Kozlov. On January, 29th, 2007 the newspaper "Kommersant" published a letter of the former board chairman of board of Open Society "VIP-BANK" Alexei Frenkel, who was arrested as the prospective instigator of this murder. The letter states that a number of Ignatiev's colleagues had received bribes from the banks, wishing to be included in a system of insurance for deposits.

Representatives of the Central Bank at first refused to make any official comments on Frenkel's charges. However, later Ignatiev told journalists that Frenkel's charges were "unfounded" and only served to "distract" Frenkel from his business.

Ignatiev is the councillor of directors at the Bank of Russia and is the author more than 20 scientific articles. He has numerous governmental awards. He speaks English.

Ignatiev is married.

Sources

Lenta.Ru, Profile of Sergei Mikhailovich Ignatiev (in Russian)

Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Profile of Sergei Mikhailovich Ignatiev (in Russian)

Last updated December 15, 2008