Bank of Russia to pilot new financial ecosystem

The Bank of Russia presented a concept for a new financial ecosystem at the Finopolis forum in autumn 2017 and is ready to begin testing it in the second half of April 2018. Within the new system, market platforms will connect participants through open APIs. In essence, the ecosystem will act as a market where users can directly find and utilize financial services that are displayed much as goods are in a catalog.

The fundamental layer of the whole system is that financial transactions will also be registered into a system the state can access. Although there will be no limit to the number of such platforms that can be created, the technological difficulties associated with it will likely restrict them to larger companies such as Yandex, Mail.ru and mobile operators. The goal in the creation of such an ecosystem is to, eventually, allow all players (big and small) to reach a greater clientele, thereby improving the quality of service via increased competition. The Bank of Russia is confident that, as a result of this, financial marketplaces will merge with retail marketplaces.

After piloting, the Bank of Russia plans to develop relevant normative acts and propose them to the government for approval in autumn 2018.