The Central Bank in the “Financial Stability Review” described the risks associated with the development of digital platforms and ecosystems in the Russian financial market, the debt of the four largest players (who they are, it is not reported) evaluated 900 million rubles.
In 2024, the strengthening of the role of digital platforms and ecosystems in the Russian financial market as borrowers and direct competitors of financial organizations is noted. Bigtech assets and their annual revenue exceeded 2 trillion rubles.
The growing importance of ecosystems increases the relevance of the question of their financial sustainability, writes the Central Bank. At the same time, the current business model of a number of ecosystem companies, which involves significant investment in business development and high exposure to the real estate market (warehouses and data centers), carries risks with the increase in the cost of borrowing and rental rates.
About half of the debt of the four largest IT companies (0.44 out of 0.9 trillion rubles as of October 1, 2024) is due to bank loans, another 30% is due to lease obligations, from the end of 2023 the companies began to raise funds on the CFA market, it is reported. in review.
Financial divisions build their business by relying on the infrastructure and customer base of parent companies, which provides them with rapid business growth and low costs.
Banking ecosystems, on the other hand, using the existing banking resource base, actively develop non-financial services and invest in non-core (immobilized) assets.
As a result, the concentration of bank investments in immobilized assets has already exceeded 20% of the capital of the banking system. Further growth of the share of non-core assets on banks’ balance sheets may negatively affect the financial stability of individual credit organizations and financial stability in general.
In order to limit this risk, in 2025 the Bank of Russia plans to develop a regulation of the risk-sensitive limit for immobilized assets of banks as a share of capital.
In general, ecosystems, due to the scale of their activities, are beginning to play the role of critically important infrastructure in the Russian economy, on which the process of selling goods and services is built.
It is important to find a balance between limiting the risks associated with the activity of ecosystems and creating conditions for their development in order to maintain positive effects for improving the standard of living of citizens and new opportunities for conducting business for SMEs, the report says.