IBM Corp is in negotiations with the Irkutsk section of the Central Bank of Russia over the computerisation of banks in the Irkutsk region. According to I Dubrovo, director of the Central Bank’s department of informatics, IBM will be delivering computer equipment to Irkutsk by the end of the year. Director of the regional centre for informatisation in Irkutsk Zhuk says he hopes that the system will be put into operation in the first half of 1993, but IBM Moscow was unable to comment on the on-going negotiations in Irkursk. The oil-rich region is desperately in need of viable banking technology as commercial activity accelerates there. Revenues from oil makes it is one of the few parts of the country able to pay for such modernisation. According to Russian daily Izvestiya, the cost of the first part of the project is estimated to be $1m and this sum will be provided by the Central Bank. Further finance will come from banks that choose to become users of the system – there are more than 100 commercial banks in the Irkursk region.
