Financial Journal

p. 8-26

Authors: Victor L. Dostov, Pavel M. Shust, Pavel V. Pimenov

The current structure of the Russian payment market is almost ten years old—in the summer of 2011, the Federal Law “On the National Payment System” was adopted. This was the start of a “Russian noncash miracle,” a fantastic increase of non-cash payments in retail turnover. Having solved numerous problems, the new market structure today also needs to be updated. During this decade, the range of challenges faced by the industry and the regulator has changed significantly: those are unbalanced competition, the presence of types of companies with similar functionality on the market, complex licensing procedures, and so on. This article aims to consider a new perspective of market transformation based on the introduction of payment institution into the Russian system. The article analyzes the current and future types of payments; examines in detail the structure of the Russian payment market, its advantages and disadvantages; and describes the payment institution, identifying the risks and prospects of its introduction into Russian banking practice. The authors suggest the feasibility of introducing payment institutions as a more functional version of the payment agents operating in Russia to simplify the complex structure of payment service providers. Payment institutions should become conduits for new payment services (such as PISP and AISP). In addition, payment institutions should be supervised by the regulator. At the same time, the introduction of a new type of companies should not put existing players at a disadvantage. Therefore, existing credit institutions and payment agents should have the ability to easily change their status and transform into payment institutions and back again.

p. 38-53

Authors: Sergey V. Shkodinsky, Mihail N. Dudin, Daler I. Usmanov

The relevance of the topic of this scientific article lies in the need for a theoretical and practical study of the problem of escalating numbers and quality of cyber threats and attacks committed against institutions of the Russian financial system, implying their safe and sustainable development being ensured in Industry 4.0. The purpose of the article is a comprehensive analysis of cyberthreats facing the national financial system of the Russian Federation in the context of economy digitalization. The subject of scientific research is the processes of ensuring national security of the Russian Federation’s financial system in the digital economy. In the process of research, the authors relied on general scientific methods (observation, comparison, measurement, analysis and synthesis, as well as logical reasoning), specific scientific methods (static analysis, expert assessments, and graphical method), and the foresight method. The validity and reliability of the results of scientific research are ensured by the correctness and rigor of the logic and research scheme construction. Scientific and practical research of Russian and foreign scientists in the field of cybersecurity, digital economy and public administration was used as a methodological and fundamental basis of the study. Various approaches to key categories—digital sovereignty and cyberwar—have been systematized, and it has been established that the most pressing financial challenges and threats to the digital economy of the Russian Federation are as follows: hacker attacks, financial sabotage in the financial market, design and launch of social engineering trojans, infrastructure attacks on IoT (Internet of Things) networks, and sale of hacker tools with open source. The authors have analyzed the number and quality of cyberattacks on domestic financial institutions in 2016–2020; summarized the losses caused by cyberattacks to financial institutions; and identified the main scenarios for the development of cyberthreats and cyberattacks for the national financial system. As the main conclusion, the authors determine that further elaboration of the issues of ensuring financial institution cybersecurity in the digital economy requires justification and implementation of specific programs and activities carried out both by commercial banks within the framework of individual strategies for ensuring digital security, and by authorities and management with positions of ensuring the digital sovereignty of the state.

p. 67-75

Authors: Andrey I. Lukashov

Building upon the practices of the Treasury of Russia as well as other federal executive agencies, this article presents a new approach aimed at improving the efficiency of public administration through the centralization of general management functions within a given body. The set of general functions across public authorities is largely generic, suggesting that the stage involving the optimization of said functions can be regarded as a preliminary one preceding a full-fledged digital transformation of public administration. Functions associated with budget accounting and budget report formation, material and technical support, and personnel, legal and administrative activities dominate in the structure of both federal and local authorities’ general management functions. At the same time, individual government bodies at both the federal and regional levels are all, to some extent, engaged in the optimization of general functions implementation costs through assigning appropriate powers to subordinate agencies. Exemplified by the Treasury of Russia and other public administration bodies, the article systemizes and analyzes the existing approaches within the subject matter. As a result of the analysis, it is deemed advisable to synchronize the activities of public authorities, in particular through coordinating the process at the level of the Government of the Russian Federation.

p. 88-103

Authors: Olga A. Sinenko, Timofey P. Mitrofanov

The issue of “business fragmentation” has been relevant in Russia for over ten years. Business striving to ensure competitiveness makes it necessary to look for mechanisms to reduce the tax burden, applying special tax regimes or preferential tax conditions for residents of territories with special economic status. In this paper, the authors analyze the theoretical prerequisites for substantiating the signs of “business fragmentation,” and study the scope of application of “business fragmentation” schemes within the framework of preferential tax conditions for territories with special economic status in the Far East. The basic research methods were content analysis, comparative analysis and synthesis. As a result of the content analysis of judicial practice, the criteria for business fragmentation, confirming the formal division of a business, were substantiated. The authors carried out a comparative analysis of resident companies and identified, based on open data, 159 residents of priority social and economic development areas (PSEDAs) and 625 residents of the Free Port of Vladivostok (FPV) with signs of “business fragmentation.” Those amounted to 28.49 % and 29.48 % in the total number of active residents, respectively. Vladivostok is the leader in terms of the number of residents with signs of “business fragmentation,” with 443 residents of the FPV. The most common signs of “business fragmentation” among resident companies in territories with a special economic status of the Far East are substantiated: common persons managing companies, common or identical type of activity, and common address of location. Common types of activity among resident companies with signs of “business fragmentation” within territories with special economic status of the Far East are warehousing and auxiliary transport (15 % of PSEDA; 12.3 % of the FPV); construction of buildings (16.5 % of the FPV); and operations with real estate (14 % of the FPV).

p. 116-131

Authors: Vyacheslav Yu. Dodonov

Depreciation of the national currency — economies with predominantly raw material exports included — is reflected not only in the indicators of the external sector, but also in the sphere of public finance, in particular the formation of budget revenues. In Kazakhstan, the impact of devaluation on the formation of the state budget is specific, associated with the presence of a special source of its income in the form of transfers from the sovereign wealth fund (National Fund). During the period of low oil prices, revenues to the National Fund from the oil sector decreased, and its accelerated spending began, which brought to the forefront investment income as one of the main source of its receipts. The high investment income in the Kazakh currency secures relative stability of the fund’s volume and transfers to the budget, but this income is largely formed due to the exchange rate factor. The weakening of the Kazakhstani tenge against hard currencies placed as the main part of the fund’s assets ensures an increase in the tenge investment income through their revaluation. The growth of investment income, in turn, produces increased volumes of transfers to the budget. Thus, the devaluation of the tenge has become a factor of stability in the formation of state budget revenues.