Elvira Nabiullina: Bank of Russia’s 2020 Annual Report Speech by Ms Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, at the joint meeting of State Duma dedicated committees on Bank of Russia’s 2020 Annual Report, 27 May 2021. * * * Good afternoon, Mr Aksakov. Good afternoon, dear colleagues. First of all, I would like to thank the members of the dedicated committees for the meaningful analysis and assessment of our work in 2020. Both within working groups and at the meeting with parliamentary fractions that my colleagues and I attended, we received not only comments, but also suggestions regarding measures that might be implemented in the future to develop the financial market. We will surely study them in detail. I would like to affirm that I and my colleagues, who are also present here today, would be glad to answer your questions. We are ready to provide various types of information about our work, results, and objectives. The heads of the committees of the National Financial Board, where all issues are discussed, also carry out extensive work. Hence, we are closely communicating with the State Duma not only when we present our report, but also throughout the year.
Our plans for the near future include analysis of the usefulness of insurance products — this is the start of important work and we are beginning to systematise this work. Some insurance products, especially in prescribed insurance, are questionable, in our opinion. We already identified instances of inefficient insurance, and we discussed them at the State Duma’s plenary sessions as well. I am talking about the so-called insurance in equity construction. It was only for the sake of appearance, but actually did not protect anybody’s interests. As we have a very large portion of prescribed insurance, the analysis of the usefulness of insurance products for customers with the assessment of required changes in this regard is extensive and systemic work that we are starting to carry out on a continuous basis. The last topic I would like to address — I do not have enough time to provide detailed information, but it is always a matter of special attention for us and deputies particularly focus on it — is financial consumer protection. Retail investors — Russians who have entered the securities market — currently number nearly ten million. And this number might continue to grow. In many countries, the portion of people participating in the securities market is even larger. Currently, people predominantly invest rather small amounts. However, the growth rate is high, and there are a lot of newcomers in the market. It is difficult for them to assess the risks and pitfalls of various financial products, which are often complex.