Prospects for the Development of Payment Institutions in Russia

The current structure of the Russian payment market is almost ten years old—in the summer of 2011, the Federal Law “On the National Payment System” was adopted. This was the start of a “Russian noncash miracle,” a fantastic increase of non-cash payments in retail turnover. Having solved numerous problems, the new market structure today also needs to be updated. During this decade, the range of challenges faced by the industry and the regulator has changed significantly: those are unbalanced competition, the presence of types of companies with similar functionality on the market, complex licensing procedures, and so on. This article aims to consider a new perspective of market transformation based on the introduction of payment institution into the Russian system. The article analyzes the current and future types of payments; examines in detail the structure of the Russian payment market, its advantages and disadvantages; and describes the payment institution, identifying the risks and prospects of its introduction into Russian banking practice. The authors suggest the feasibility of introducing payment institutions as a more functional version of the payment agents operating in Russia to simplify the complex structure of payment service providers. Payment institutions should become conduits for new payment services (such as PISP and AISP). In addition, payment institutions should be supervised by the regulator. At the same time, the introduction of a new type of companies should not put existing players at a disadvantage. Therefore, existing credit institutions and payment agents should have the ability to easily change their status and transform into payment institutions and back again.