Sberbank supports idea of including marketplace banks in list of systemically important institutions
SOCHI. Oct 8 (Interfax) - Sberbank supports the proposal to include marketplace banks in the list of systemically important credit institutions (SICI), Sberbank President and Board Chairman Herman Gref said.
"We support the proposal to include marketplace banks among the systemically important ones. If you look at the number of opened wallets and cards of marketplace banks, they are already formally in the top five banks. This is a big responsibility, even considering that these banks do little lending," the bank's press service quoted Gref as saying to journalists.
Gref recalled that stricter regulation applies to systemically important banks.
"We do not think it's necessary to apply all the restrictions to marketplace banks. For example, increased add-ons to capital adequacy, which are currently in effect for systemically important banks, are not so important. But it is much more important if marketplace banks comply with requirements for behavioral supervision, not abusing a dominant position, and the level of reliability of information systems," Gref said.
Supervision of such banks should be comprehensive, taking into account their subsidiary and affiliated companies providing, for example, lending services through non-banking structures - microfinance companies and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services, he said.
The proposal to recognize the subsidiary banks of marketplaces as systemically important was made in September by VTB President and Board Chairman Andrei Kostin. Central Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina then promised to consider this proposal.
"I have a proposal: to classify the financial institutions owned by marketplaces as systemically important banks by all parameters, because in terms of customer coverage they significantly surpass both VTB and Alfa-Bank and perhaps are only second to Sberbank," Kostin previously said at the International Banking Forum organized by the Association of Russian Banks.
Nabiullina promised to discuss this idea. "We will definitely consider your proposal, it is somewhat unexpected. But even without considering this proposal, I want to say that we are now actively working with the banking community and with marketplaces to specify approaches for when there will be equal conditions for competition on marketplaces. I absolutely agree that this is fundamentally important. On one hand, we must not, of course, hinder the development of marketplaces in any way, or the provision of financial services there, because it is convenient for people, but there must be equal conditions for competition. We will definitely consider your proposals," she said.
The head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov, said that the issue of regulatory arbitrage between banks and financial subsidiaries of marketplaces will be discussed by the State Duma or the Association of Russian Banks.
