Competition and monopolization in the banking sector of modern Russia

The article analyzes the current state of the banking sector from the standpoint of competition among existing credit institutions. It touches upon aspects of the activities of the Central Bank of the Russi an Federation to maintain competition. Statistics are given showing that the largest banks account for the vast majority of resources and customers, which, in fact, can characterize the national banking sector as an oligopoly. The positive and negative aspects of the dominance of giant banks in the Russian market are considered, arguments are given against the current situation and for it. Attention is paid to the promising initiatives of the Bank of Russia to reduce the monopolization of the market, in particular, the creation of a regional bank as a new type of credit institution with a reduced number of mandatory ratios. The positive effects of the initiative for the regions are analyzed. Separately, the issues of competition in the provision of software and IT products for the banking services market are considered in the context of the current state of sanctions restrictions. It is concluded that the Russian IT industry has reached a new qualitative level of development, despite the outflow of IT specialists in 2022.Â