Central Bank of Russia notes absence of interest in obtaining full banking licenses, but sees demand for creating NCOs
MOSCOW. Dec 23 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia notes the absence of interest in obtaining full banking licenses, but sees demand for creating non-bank credit organizations (NCOs), the director of the CBR's Department for Admission and Cessation of Activities of Financial Organizations, Lyudmila Tyazhelnikova, said in an interview with Interfax.
"The market is saturated with these financial institutions. Now banks are moving more towards expanding the list of operations, obtaining licenses to attract deposits from individuals, for banking operations with precious metals and in foreign currency," she said.
At the same time, since the beginning of 2022, 19 NCOs have been registered, including ten this year. Documents for ten more settlement non-bank credit organizations are under consideration.
"We see that such activity is in demand by market participants. The growth in the number of NCOs is due both to changes in the geopolitical situation and to the implementation of modern technologies for electronic payments and banking transactions," she said.
The Central Bank has approved 445 transactions for the sale of share packages in credit organizations since 2022, she said.
"And if we count all financial ones for which we issue consents, that's 819. The record in this sense was 2024, when 267 consents were issued, of which 142 consents were for credit organizations. The results for 2025 are expected to be at a level comparable to 2024," she said.
The Central Bank has not yet received a single application for branch registration from foreign banks, she said.
"Perhaps this is due to geopolitical risks and very conservative approaches to the potential opening of branches by foreign banks," she said.
Tyazhelnikova recalled that amendments to the law regulating the conditions for a foreign bank to operate in Russia through its branch are currently being prepared. In particular, it is proposed that the minimum guarantee deposit amount be reduced from 1 billion rubles to 90 million rubles, the list of banking operations permissible for branches of foreign banks be expanded, the quota for the number of branch employees who are foreign citizens and stateless persons be increased from 50% to 75%, and the branch of a foreign bank be granted the right to open internal structural subdivisions.
