Transformation of the Role of Financial Market Regulators: Statement of the Research Problem

Rapid socioeconomic development has produced a widening gap between economic theory and reality. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to objectively assess whether financial regulatory policies adopted by nations worldwide are aligned with the fundamental objectives of stimulating financial market growth and promoting competition, and whether these policies are based on a realistic market picture. Such policy assessments have become particularly challenging for the payments industry and in regards to the regulation governing emergent financial market players from other industries (e.g. Big Tech). Coupled with the radical shift in the role of regulators themselves, this phenomenon raises a variety of scientific questions. Over the past few years, participants in the financial industry, primarily in the payment segment around the world, have, in practice, faced changes in the approaches of central (national) banks to market regulation. In our opinion, the key change lies in the new role that regulation is acquiring: now it not only reacts to market changes by setting a regulatory framework for them, but also becomes the central source and determining instrument of market changes. In this article, we substantiate an approach to the study of the directions of changes in the functions of macroregulation as a single mechanism in relation to a single object, in contrast to the studies available in the scientific literature within the framework of individual segments or infrastructures as well as the practice of regulation. The payment market used as an example is due to the fact that, by now, it is on this market that the changes studied manifest themselves to the greatest extent.