State Commercial Bank of the Russian Empire

The main goal of the banking reform was to promote the strengthening of credit, which, in turn, could contribute to the development of agriculture, industry, and trade.

[citation needed] In 1822, the State Commercial Bank purchased the Lunins' House in Moscow to make it its branch in the city.

[6] From the mid-1820s, the activity of the State Commercial Bank was constrained by the policies of finance minister Georg Ludwig Cancrin, who distrusted it as a possible vehicle for mercantile speculation.

[5]: 8 From 1840, as part of the monetary reform initiated by finance minister Georg Ludwig Cancrin, the local offices of the State Commercial Bank were used to establish deposit offices in which Russians could exchange metallic money against deposit notes, and from 1843, receive credit notes in exchange of the old assignats issued until 1817 by the Assignation Bank.

A decree of 9 July 1843 ordered the creation of a State Credit Note Bureau in Saint Petersburg, which thus became Russia's note-issuing body from then until 1860.