Bank of Russia to launch financial marketplace by year end

The marketplace will allow credit institutions to win new clients; the project will promote further competition in the financial market. The service will be free for the consumer, while banks will incur the costs of IT infrastructure and remote customer identification, which may affect the price of products.

The marketplace to be launched by the Central Bank in the coming months will allow Russians to receive financial products without visiting the offices of banks and other financial organizations, the regulator stressed. It will operate through storefront aggregators of existing portals, including Banki.ru and Sravni.ru. Products cannot be received directly from these sites now: the link will re-direct you to the bank's portal. The interaction between the client and the financial service provider is supported by special platforms. The Bank of Russia informs that Moscow Exchange and VTB Registrar were included in the register of financial platform operators on August 27, on which basis deposits and bonds will be offered. At present the documents are being prepared by Infinitum, a special depository, which will be responsible for selling shares of mutual funds.

The regulator drew an analogy between a financial marketplace and a large online store: goods from different manufacturers are added to the ‘cart’ and paid for all at once in a couple of clicks. The service is supposed to be free for customers. The service will be available even at a credit institution not represented in the client's region of residence.