Elvira Nabiullina: Speech at congress of Association of Banks of Russia Speech by Ms Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, at congress of Association of Banks of Russia, 28 May 2021. * * * Good afternoon, dear congress attendees, The pandemic is slowly but abating, there are signs that life is returning to normal, and in-person conferences are gradually coming back. All the same, we are lacking in real-life communication, so I am very glad to welcome you here today. Of course, there are changes taking place not just in how we communicate. We can see that the actions taken as part of our anti-crisis agenda are gradually being replaced by those on a development trajectory, as before. With account for the fact that the pandemic has had a serious impact on society, on the economy as a whole, and on the financial sector, we must think about the future, and about how the financial sector will help the development of the economy. Last year, the banking sector made a positive contribution amid pandemic conditions. It supported the economy, its clients, and, I am sure, will be able to further support the development of the economy. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire banking community for their wholly responsible behaviour during the pandemic. It is thanks to you, really, that we managed to greatly mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic.
This is because we understand that these implementations require that IT systems be developed because almost everything is now tied to IT. We want banks to be able to do this at the same time. There are exceptions when there are extraordinary situations or risks. Or when banks, due to the fact that this is an easing measure, a preferential regime, ask us to introduce these new changes faster. Sometimes we just let them choose: they can remain on the old system or migrate to the new system. This is more difficult for us, but we understand that it is easier for banks to work this way. In our opinion, this increases predictability of the implementation of all our changes in regulation. I would like to say that, together with you, we are trying to remove bottlenecks, to reduce costs where possible, so that banks of varying sizes have the opportunity to work and benefit their customers. For example, for a long time there have been discussions, on all the platforms and during meetings, of banks’ access to funds from the budget, state-owned companies, and today Mr. Aksakov spoke about this, about a draft law. We hope that it will indeed be adopted, and that this topic will no longer require constant discussion. We understand how serious it is from the point of view of ensuring an equal playing field regarding access to state and state companies’ funds. All the more so because they form a significant part of banks’ equities.