Eventually, this will be pulling the rug from under the financial sector, undermining confidence which is the basis for the financial market in general. I hope that this year the Association will be addressing this problem of self-regulation when the banking community is capable to reach agreements in a civilised way, develop rules on its own, and control their fulfilment. I believe that the maturity level of banks, the banking system, and the financial market certainly makes it possible to develop self-regulation in banking which is lacking now. Therefore, we are forced to act in this way imposing restrictions and sanctions. In my opinion, this is still not a long-lasting trend, and we should think about how we may progressively develop a self-regulation institute. Lastly, I would like to say just a few words about large-scale and longer-term priorities in regulation and challenges. As regards this issue, I am happy that we have a common view of these challenges associated with digitisation, the emergence of green finance, sustainable development in general, and cyber risks. These are really long-term problems we need to respond to. Probably, a digital ruble is one of the most frequently discussed topics today. From the very beginning when we started to prepare our consultation paper on this issue, we were aware that banks might be wary about this idea. However, digitisation is disrupting the entire payment market in a large number of countries, with consumption behaviour models also altering. The development of central bank digital currencies has become a worldwide trend.
A priority will be given to those projects that will contribute to the well-being of future generations. We are interested in the development of green finance instruments. However, it is also vital to assess the actual risk level for investors. We are well aware of the fact that a lot of Russian companies are highly carbon-intensive. Therefore, it is necessary to assess their risks taking into account, among other factors, the introduction of carbon taxes in the European Union and other countries. Global investors are already altering their strategies. Moreover, banks themselves need to factor in climate risks in their operations. This is a serious challenge to the economy, the financial system, and the regulator. We should learn how to adequately assess not the risks that have been accumulated before. We are differentiating risk assessment in regulation relying on actual data showing how these risks materialised. We should assess future risks and model these future risks, building these stress scenarios. In our opinion, we may not blindly lower the requirements for these green instruments, but we should develop an approach helping an investor understand that a particular project is really a green one and assess the level of its sustainability and risks that may arise, as well as how they differ from those inherent in socalled non-green projects. This is an issue to be addressed in the course of our joint work. We have already made a certain progress towards better information transparency.