MOSCOW REGION, February 2. /TASS/. The Russian Central Bank fined more than 10 banks in 2017 for conducting questionable operations. The total amount of fines is estimated at blns of rubles, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Dmitry Skobelkin told reporters.

"There have been cases, and multiple ones - estimated at billions of rubles of fines. More than ten banks, much more, last year," he said, answering a question. According to Skobelkin, a number of fined banks are part of the top 30 credit institutions in terms of assets.

He also noted that the Central bank is considering increasing the fines for questionable operations. "We are considering increasing the fines," he said. "We are currently considering various options, we have thoughts about increasing fines and raising certain mandatory norms and measures," he added.

Earlier, the Russian Finance Ministry posted a draft law authorizing the Central Bank to impose fines of up to 1% of the bank's capital on credit institutions violating the law. According to the current legislation, the maximum penalty for questionable lending institutions is limited and ranges from 0.1% of the bank’s minimum authorized capital to 1% of the paid authorized capital, but not more than 1% the minimum volume of the authorized capital (from 900,000 rubles - $15,980 - to 10 mln rubles - $117,549).