CBR and VTB bosses share views on financial sector development
VTB Group Board Chairman Andrei Kostin and Central Bank of Russia (CBR) Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina exchanged views on the future development of the Russian financial sector at the Data Fusion International Conference in Moscow.
Speaking on consolidation of the Russian banking industry and boosting its efficiency and stability, Kostin said, among other things, he had a tip or hint for Nabiullina on what to do with the Russian financial sector and its further development: “simply drastically reduce the number of financial institutions in the country.”
Reacting to Kostin's comments, Nabiullina said she remembered the reduction of the number of financial players had always been his long-existing dream, but she did not express direct agreement or rejection of his position. Nabiullina, however, is a proponent of maintaining diverse multiple banks in Russia.This debate is not new in the Russian financial services industry and thus reflects the ongoing discussions between the active supporters of the industry’s consolidation, led primarily by the owners or top management executives of the country’s largest banks and their equally vocal opponents, who favor maintaining a large number of diverse financial players in the sector.
The Data Fusion International Forum is a cross-industry platform for pursing a dialog between the representatives of the government and businesses, and is dedicated to working with big data, developments and deployments of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in Russia.
The aggregated budget of Russian companies spent on the developments and deployments of AI-driven technologies in 2025 stood at 257bn rubles, representing a nearly threefold increase from 90.3bn rubles in 2024, according to the Data Fusion Forum’s statistics.
by Christopher Kenneth
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