MOSCOW, March 11 - RAPSI. Although over 6,000 bank offices have been entitled to provide currency exchange operations in Moscow and the Moscow Region as of January 27, the Central Bank reported about 157 exchange offices illegally operating in Moscow.

Rules and regulations of currency exchange operations at banking institutions were amended on October 1, 2010. Under the new rules all exchange offices were to be either closed or to expand the number of their services.

The banking watchdog urged people to report to the police about all suspicious exchange offices.