FINOPOLIS 2021/22 final day: future technologies

As Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina noted, the time when financial institutions were considered very conservative, albeit reliable, ‘is now deep in the past.’ Now, in her opinion, it is important to understand the main trends in technology development so as not to lose the vision of the situation and our advantages.

‘Technology is such a thing that it is difficult to talk about its future. Financiers are very pragmatic people,’ she admitted. ‘Those engaged in business focus on the practical application of technology. However, we are all afraid of missing the technological wave, the pattern of changes.’

Many forum participants believe that the future is in the development of decentralised finance (DeFi), which is already challenging the traditional financial market. Others are convinced that it will not become a serious competitor to ecosystems created by individual market players.

Existing and developing technological services such as tokenised non-cash payments, prospects for the development of digital financial assets (DFAs) and the digital ruble were also at the centre of the discussion.

‘As we have stated, starting from April 2023, we will launch pilot real transactions with some clients on the digital ruble platform,’ said Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia. ‘Fifteen banks are in the pilot project now. Ten of them have already developed their mobile applications. Currently, they are testing the customer journey with us.’

At present, the Bank of Russia is also discussing with experts the prospects for the development of digital assets. By the end of this year, it is planned to formulate a list of initiatives to regulate them. ‘We believe this is a very good new tool for financial market participants,’ Olga Skorobogatova added.

Elvira Nabiullina noted that this year’s forum was a special one. This was not only a dialogue with the market, ‘but also an attempt to look beyond the horizon’. According to her, this was a visionary forum. ‘I believe that our forum can encourage market participants to provide households and businesses with new good financial services. I hope that we will be able to succeed by discussing all these issues together, in dialogue and even through debate,’ the Governor of the Bank of Russia concluded.

This year, more than 4,000 people participated in the FINOPOLIS Innovative Financial Technologies Forum.