Russian Banking Informatization Market

• Financial technology (fintech) in Russia

2022

The Russian software market for the financial sector grew by 12% to 28.1 billion rubles

The volume of the Russian software market for the financial sector in 2022 reached 28.1 billion rubles, which is 12% more than a year earlier. This is stated in a study by Strategy Partners, published in late 2023.

According to the report, 2019-2022. The Russian market software for financial institutions grew by an average of 12.8% per year. Sales of such products at the end of 2023 were tentatively estimated at 31.5 billion rubles. In recent years, as analysts predict, the market volume will grow by an average of 13.5% annually and will reach 59.5 billion rubles by 2028. ON Experts called the main catalysts for the growth of Russian banking:

• change of core banking systems among systemically important and large clients;
• enlarging the business of financial organizations;
• introduction of new payment systems;
• cross-industriality is trending.

The largest suppliers of IT solutions for the financial sector of Russia are called the companies "Diasoft" (in different categories occupied from 20% to 40% of the market in 2022), "CROC" (45% of the system integration market), as well as CFT, R-Style and "LANIT." The international market is led by the developer Infosys, whose solutions are purchased by the largest banks primarily in Southeast Asia, according to the report.

Commenting on the situation on the software market for the financial sector, Boris Popov, director of business development at Vinteo, in a conversation with Vedomosti, noted that the departure from Russia of foreign payment systems and other familiar IT solutions on which the banking infrastructure was built required companies to urgently patch holes in terms of switching to domestic systems. From the point of view of software, the fintech sector has long and steadily used foreign solutions (for example, Cisco), was insensitive to mandatory import substitution compared to the same state-owned companies, Popov added.

Strategic research of the Russian software market and automation of business processes for the financial sector

TAdviser review: Digitalisation of banks 2022

Digitalization allows banks to simplify customer access to financial services, automates key tasks of employees and helps save operating costs by optimizing the number of offices and workplaces by financial institutions. Every year, banks invest millions and billions of rubles in the development and implementation of digital tools. 2022 was a special year. In the spring, bankers had to urgently carry out work on import substitution of foreign IT products and rebuild business processes, where necessary. In the second half of the year, emergency work was completed, and some banks began to develop digital services in the new conditions. Read more here.

Sale of IT equipment of bankrupt banks

As it became known on March 22, 2022, the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) sells the IT equipment of bankrupt banks. This is one of the measures designed to help credit institutions after the suspension of activities in Russia of leading foreign technology companies. Read more here.

2020

Russian IT market for banks: what tasks were solved and who became the leader in the pandemic year

The coronavirus pandemic and the regime of forced self-isolation "effectively" checked the IT infrastructure of the banking sector. They have not seriously changed priorities, but certainly a little distracted from solving urgent problems. Banks had to adapt to the situation, tighten and adapt the IT infrastructure to the format of remote operation.

I can say that this process did not take a long time - financial structures, like the locomotive and the vanguard of the enterprise automation market, quickly oriented themselves and successfully passed this difficult test. In addition to deploying remote workplaces and debugging teamwork, it was important to provide more serious protection against cyber threats, taking into account the blurred perimeter of the corporate network, "says Vladimir Leonov, CTO of AMT GROUP.

At the same time, due to the change in consumer habits, bank customers began to visit bank branches less often. Accordingly, financial companies will have to change the infrastructure in order to deliver the entire package of services remotely, while providing a traditionally high level of security.

According to Sergei Sherstobitov, founder and CEO of the Angara group of companies, this marks a trend towards the introduction of heavy sandboxes, credit paperless conveyors, scoring models. And in order to quickly identify and suppress the activities of telephone fraudsters, banks will interact more closely with telecom operators.

In addition, large financial companies will be aimed at introducing tools with deep analytics, including behavioral, and hyperautomatizing information security processes, which will significantly increase the efficiency and productivity of their respective departments, adds Sergey Sherstobitov.

Andrei Ezrokhi, vice president and director of strategic business development at Bell Integrator, notes that the last year has brought a significant need for banks to develop digital sales and customer service channels. Due to the pandemic, this has become not only a fashionable and modern advantage within the framework of standard competition, but rather a vital necessity, because direct face-to-face contacts with clients have become extremely limited, and sometimes virtually impossible. This has affected both big bank fashion lawmakers and smaller players.

Given the extremely rapid nature of the development of events, the need for extremely rapid changes in information systems, the creation of fast prototypes, and the prompt adjustment of requirements for products and services to a rapidly changing situation was exposed. All these factors inevitably lead to a radical change in outdated technological platforms, the transition to more technological systems that can support the demanded agile development trends, moving away from monolithic systems towards more flexible technologies, adds the Bell Integrator expert.

In addition, there was an urgent need for the evolution of internal banking processes, especially retail banking, capable of supporting distributed remote work of employees, optimizing the load and costs of business transactions. Large market players are again fighting for a retail client, building long-term relations with him, trying to give him maximum comfort and minimum costs when using banking products.

An important factor contributing to this is a deeper and more conscious approach to the collection and processing of all types of data, analysis and predictions based on them, including using artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms.

This primarily applies to client information, including behavioral aspects, social media activities, geographical marks, and so on. Everything that allows banks to better know their client, understand their needs, risks and, ultimately, make optimal decisions, "explains Andrei Ezrohi.

At the same time, as happens during crisis periods, the stratification of IT consumers has intensified in the market, said Julia Amiridi, Deputy General Director for Business Development at Intersoft Lab. According to her, large players increased investments in technology in order to use the opportunities and strengthen competitive positions, the rest of the participants focused on supporting the minimum necessary for survival.

Therefore, despite the positive financial results of the year, which many IT companies showed contrary to forecasts, the penetration of a number of technologies, in particular business analysts, into the financial sector as a whole slowed down. Development budgets were redirected to tasks that became priority in a pandemic: supporting remote work formats and maintaining profitability in conditions of uncertainty.

Banks have invested in digital customer service channels, connecting to the Fast Payment System (FPS), using biometric data to provide financial services remotely, tools for organizing remote work of their own personnel, ensuring the safety of remote workplaces, as well as accelerating and reducing the cost of internal risk management processes, profitability and costs, - notes Julia Amiridi.

Largest IT providers in banks

At the end of 2020, CFT became the leader among IT suppliers to Russian banks. During the reporting period, its revenue from the relevant projects reached 27.4 billion rubles. The second line of the rating was taken by Softline with revenue of 26.4 billion rubles.

The top 10 largest market players are presented in the infographic below.

Talking about his work during the period of coronavirus restrictions, Andrei Fomichev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the CFT Group of Companies, noted that the pandemic did not stop project activities in the financial sector.

Throughout last year, we at CFT actively continued to introduce both the CFT-Bank system and fintech solutions in banks for interaction between banks with SBP, EBS, Marketplace. Last year added to the company's portfolio such new unique cases as the introduction of ABS in the bank completely remotely. Moreover, these were projects in the largest banks in Russia and the CIS, - he says.

The I-Tec o noted that the development processes were greatly accelerated during the pandemic.

Of course, at the beginning of the pandemic there were some outbursts when it was necessary, for example, to very quickly transfer all office employees to VDI, to increase the possibilities of remote banking. But this surge was some six months and has already passed. And then there was simply an acceleration of those processes that were already, - explained Yuri Geronimus, Deputy Director of the Department of System Software Solutions at I-Teco.

According to him, the process of integrating IT and security has accelerated, the creation of platforms for private clouds and organizational and technological platforms of service organizations has accelerated, Agile trends have "soared," "priority number one" has received programs aimed at efficiency.

The CROC company in the pandemic year recorded a lot of requests for electronic archives and paperless document management, robotization. In addition, according to Alexander Filippov, director of business development for CROC in commercial banks, the development of remote service channels - applications and contact centers - accelerated with a vengeance during this period.

Top 40 IT suppliers in Russian banks

No. N/n	Company	Revenue from IT projects in banks in 2020, million rubles. Including VAT	Revenue from IT projects in banks in 2019, RUB million, incl. VAT	Dynamics	Key customers
1	FINTECH (CFT)	27,443	27,855	-1.5	n/a
[[Softline	Softline	26 423	22 393	18	н/д]]
3	Jet Infosystems	14 505	14 313	Gazprombank, VTB Group, Sberbank, Post Bank, Rosbank, Alfa-Bank, Ak Bars, Bank Uralsib, Bank FC Otkritie, YuniKredit Bank, Rosselkhozbank, UBR, SKB-Bank, NSPK
4	Lanit	14,417	12,314	17,1	n/a
-	Rubytech *	12,256	n/a	n/a	n/a
5	CROC	9,576	8,250	16,1	Otkritie, Rosselkhozbank, VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow
6	I-Teco * *	9 237	7 268	27.1	n/a
[[Tegrus - Merlion Projects	Tegrus	3 846	4 732	-18,7	н/д]]
8	AMT Group	3,574	3,478	2.8	Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Otkritie FC, Rosbank, RSHB, Raiffeisen Bank, VTB24, GPB
9	Force	3 453	2,500	38.1	ВЭБ.РФ, CHELINDBANK, YuniKredit Bank, Vnesheconombank, Alfa-Bank, VTB-Bank, Otkritie FC Bank, MTS-Bank
10	Neoflex	2,355	1,542	52.7	VTB, Otkritie Bank, Renaissance Credit Bank, RN Bank, ING, Icano Bank
11	RDTECH	2,228	1,834	21.5	n/a
12	BSS	2,190	1,906	14,9	GPB (Gazprombank) (EDO), RSHB, VTB (Vneshtorgbank), Bank of ДОМ.РФ (formerly Russian capital), Novikom
13	Inline Group	2 130	2 097	1.6	Alfa-Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Home Credit Bank, VEB RF, Unicredit Bank
14	Cinimex	1,969	1,438	36.9	Alfa-Bank, Gazprombank, Rosbank, VTB, Rosselkhozbank, Raiffeisen Bank, Otkritie Bank, Volkswagen Bank RUS LLC
15	Organizational & Technological Solution	1,487	936	58.9	n/a
16	Angara Group	1,408	990	42.2	n/a
17	R-Style Softlab	1 407.8	1 171	Rosselkhozbank, Post Bank, Khamkorbank
18	Toilet - Universal Technologies	1,374	940	46.1	RSHB, Raiffeisen
19	Satell.IT	1 106	1 138	-2.8	UniCredit Bank, Alfa Bank, MKB, Bank of the Union
20	Oberon	723	678	6.6	UniCredit Bank, Rosgosstrakh Bank, SDM-Bank, MigCredit
[[Itransition Rus	Itransition	660	973	-32,2	н/д]]
22	Usetech	576	289	99.2	Alfa Bank, VTB
[[SimbirSoft (SimbirSoft)	SimbirSoft	567	454	24,7	н/д]]
24	Borlas Group	543	264	105.7	n/a
25	Redmadrobot	466	366	27.3	Otkritie Financial Corporation Bank, Alfa-Bank, VTB Bank, GPB Bank, Icano Bank
26	Trinities	433	254	70.5	n/a
27	X-Com	424	407	Tinkoff Bank, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Raiffeisen Bank, Sberbank
28	DCLogic	418	443	-5.7	Alfa-Bank, VTB Bank
29	Hi-Tech	375	112	233.8	n/a
30	KORUS Consulting Group	338	352	-4	n/a
31	FlexSoft	323	309	4.5	Post Bank, FFIN Bank, Databank
32	Molga Consulting	283	169	67.5	VTB, Otkritie, Sberbank, Renaissance Credit, Alfa-Bank
33	Salf Soft Production	155	88	76.7	OTP Bank, ATB Bank, Gazprombank, Rosgosstrakhbank
34	Digital Design Group	142	135	5.6	Sberbank, SMP Bank, Cetelem Bank, BNP Paribas, Let's Go Bank
35	Impulse Telecom	141	n/a	n/a	n/a
[[Linx (MPA Communication) formerly Linxdatacenter	Linxdatacenter	127	118	7,4	н/д]]
37	Flint	63	47	33.9	n/a
38	Fort Dialog Group	n/a	n/a	Sberbank, Gazprombank
39	K2RU	23	8	187.5	Otkritie FC Bank
39	LiveTex	23	21	9.5	PSB, Unicredit, Uralsib, UBR, SNGB
[[Macroscop (Satellite Innovation)	Macroscop	11	9	27,3	н/д]]
	Total	136,990

* Data on the company's revenue from IT projects in banks came after the publication of the rating. Company added without item

TAdviser 2021

* * Included revenue of Servionica from IT projects in banks (277 million rubles for 2020, 319 million rubles for 2019)

2019

IT and information security providers for banks, market map

In April 2019, the TAdviser analytical center released the Information Technologies in the Bank card, which reflected the structure of key banking business processes and noted IT companies developing products and providing services for the digitalization of these processes. The card covered 270 market players - 230 suppliers of IT products used to digitalize the main banking processes, and 40 developers of information security solutions (more).

Market Situation - TAdviser

The level of digitalization of the domestic banking sector is very high. In general, finance is one of those industries in the digitalization of which Russia practically does not lag behind the most developed economies of the world. Let's take a closer look at the situation in this market as of the end of 2019 and how it is assessed by IT experts.

Priority of technological initiatives of the regulator

The largest projects in the financial sector are now and in the coming years with the initiatives of the Bank of Russia to create intersectoral platforms: the Unified Biometric System (EBS), the Fast Payment System (FPS), incident processing platforms, and the marketplace. According to Andrei Fomichev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of CFT, they are primarily relevant to support the effective work of small banks.

Konstantin Markelov, Head of the R&D Department of OTR, notes a certain monopolization of the banking automation market, which was the result of the fact that after the creation of the Fintech Association, the main regulator (Bank of Russia) had the functions of a kind of "monopolist-technology supplier."

Technological innovations installed on top are regulatory mandatory for commercial banks, although these innovations may be economically unprofitable for a particular bank, Konstantin Markelov believes.

Yulia Amiridi, Deputy General Director for Business Development at Intersoft Lab, believes that the steps taken by the Bank of Russia to implement the Fast Payment System, the Unified Biometric System, and transfer the right to calculate PDN to qualified bureaus are designed to level the gap in the technological support of client services among leaders and smaller players.

As a result of these actions, in the next year or two, it is possible to predict the relative equalization of the level of digital support for sales and customer service processes "on average in the market," she believes.

Fast Payment Rivalry

Strengthening the influence of the state in the banking sector does not have a very favorable effect on the development of IT in this area, says Andrei Ezrokhi, Director of Strategic Business Development at Bell Integrator. According to him, government agencies in general, including banks, are not as commercially motivated as private ones. They lack a thirst for profit, which ultimately leads to stagnant phenomena in the IT sector. But worse, when banks focus more on the redistribution of the financial market not by technological, but by political methods.

This leads to such strange phenomena as the recent rivalry over the deployment of its own fast payment system. It would be much more convenient for customers if the addressee of the transfer made by his phone number could choose which of his cards he wants to accept the received payment, but to think about the convenience of the client to everyone is somehow not leisure. Unfortunately, this war for the SBP market is likely to continue into the next two years. Alas, Russian banks have not yet come to the realization that payments are not their market at all, which, in the end, will inevitably go to those structures that will offer the service of instant transfer of funds anywhere and anyone on a 100% free basis. After all, it is possible to monetize on completely different things, including the same advertising, "says Andrei Ezrohi.

Large banks are leaders in digitalization

Technological development is an inevitability for all banks. However, only large financial organizations can afford to be the first to embark on the path of digitalization and innovation.

In the process of digitalization, undoubted leaders stand out - the largest state and commercial banks that have joined this race in all directions, says Julia Amiridi. - Smaller banks, with limited innovative budgets, direct it primarily to digitizing front-office processes and customer back-office, seeking to maintain a competitive position in customer service.

But as technologies become affordable, they will begin to be actively introduced by all participants in the financial market, Konstantin Markelov is sure.

Consolidation and development of already mastered technologies

Peter Filatov, Commercial Director of Oberon, is confident that despite the fact that the financial industry has come out on top in terms of IT development, in the next two years avalanche-like growth will be replaced by a period of stabilization and consolidation of already mastered key technologies.

In my opinion, banks and insurance companies will focus on the development of digital services and channels, as well as managing customer experience using Big Data, deep analytics, artificial intelligence, robotization. This stimulates the qualitative growth of intelligent IT solutions, reducing costs, and increasing the number and level of customer satisfaction, he says.

Mikhail Komarov, director of Informatica at DIS Group, predicts that the role of data will grow even more in the next two years, and services related to their external monetization will significantly develop. In addition, the role of creating partner ecosystems around banks will grow.

Such ecosystems will be created because banks will look for sources of profit growth, but, on the one hand, the growth of the client base is limited due to market saturation, on the other hand, it is difficult to come up with fundamentally new banking products. At the same time, banks have significant financial resources and a client base to create such ecosystems, he said.

Banks will also pay great attention to customer experience. Now customers are more and more demanding of banking services, more and more often when choosing a bank they are guided by the convenience of working with it, and not by banking products.

This is especially true for the younger generation, which is just now becoming financially active, - notes the DIS Group expert.

Sergey Kosetsky, Commercial Director of X-Com, notes that in the struggle for the client, banks are increasingly offering customers related products that require updating and supporting IT platforms: insurance and investment services, travel services, bonus and discount programs.

Maxim Tikurkin, General Director of SysSoft, says that within the framework of project factories, banks are developing modern digital products that help them increase their customer base. The reason for this is the emergence in the financial sector of new non-banking players who offer financial services on more favorable terms: for example, payment services on social networks.

According to Alexander Rozhkov, sales director of the services department of Softline Group of Companies, the expansion of the presence of fintech companies and global technology companies on the market with their payment systems acted as a kind of catalyst for accelerating the digitalization of classic banks.

Alexander Filippov, director of business development for CROC in commercial banks, adds that banking organizations occupy a leading position in the use of fintech developments and are actively following the path of digital transformation. They have a program and plans to integrate digital technologies into the business. However, these plans often include a set of pilot projects, and not a comprehensive transformation program, which also affects the revision of the strategy and business processes as a whole.

The main motivation for banks - the introduction of technologies brings a significant increase in operational efficiency and cost reduction. So in the next few years, in all likelihood, the demand for trend technologies, such as platformatization, blockchain, as well as the development of remote channels for the provision of services, software robotization and voice assistants, will remain, he notes.

Serious innovations require serious resources, but not everyone has them

The needs of banks for informatization in the next two years will be determined by the state of the economy. At the moment, there is a slowdown in the growth of the global economy, including the Russian one. The likelihood of a global recession in 2021-22 has increased. This is already putting significant pressure on the capital and sustainability of banks: growth in lending and revenue is slowing, and more than 60% of banks in the world are destroying their value, according to a study by the international consulting company McKinsey.

International rating agency Moody's changed its outlook for the Russian banking sector from "positive" to "stable" amid a weak economy. In these conditions, banks come to the fore not rapid development, but stabilization of their current state. As always, banks need to act in two directions: increase business profitability and reduce costs. Since 70% of the assets in the banking sector of Russia belong to state-owned banks, they will not be able to significantly increase profitability in a slowing economy (the main clients in the country are all divided, and the bankruptcies of commercial banks under the current legislation will only lead to an increase in the public sector), even due to new technologies. Therefore, banks remain to develop their traditional banking "product" direction and reduce costs, i.e. move not to innovative developments, but to work with "flow," with existing and launched projects. This will lead to their stability in an unfavorable economic environment, "says Yuri Terekhin, Director of the Department for Work with Financial Institutions, Force Development Center (Force Group of Companies).

At the same time, experts record a decrease in the margin of classic banking operations and products, due to increased competition and a tightened struggle for customers. This, in turn, forces banks to optimize their business processes and create new products that initially should either have a low cost or increased profitability.

The fall in profitability from the sale of traditional products and services leads to a reduction in IT budgets - if it becomes more difficult for banks to earn money, then the demand for IT-Innovations require financial and human resources naturally decreases, says Konstantin Markelov.

According to Yuri Terekhin, a notable exception is Sberbank, which, due to its special position, will gain access to money and projects under the programs of the digital economy and will be able to develop truly innovative solutions at the public expense. Therefore, by the beginning of the next economic cycle, one can expect its position to strengthen, the Force expert believes.

For the reasons outlined above, the current state of bank informatization, according to Yuri Terekhin, can be described as a transition to working with "fluid."

All IT innovations that could positively affect the profitability of the banking business in the near future have already been tested. Those that will cost banks too much and will not give a significant benefit for business profitability will remain essentially attractive slogans, and in fact will be reborn into an ordinary "flow" aimed at reducing the cost of banking services, he explains.

Further, the expert of the company "Force" explains his pessimism about the introduction of innovations in the current situation.

Artificial intelligence, in his opinion, is replaced by complicated decision-making algorithms and their execution according to the laid samples, no different, in fact, from traditional approaches to informatization.

The development of "real" artificial intelligence in relation to the banking business is too expensive and will not win in the current economic situation, Terekhin said.

Chatbots can reduce the cost of call centers by automating answers to the simplest questions, which make up the majority of support services.

But they have already given the bulk of the return to improve the efficiency of call centers. Solving difficult situations already requires the intervention of living people. To shift these situations to chatbots, it takes just advanced artificial intelligence with huge financial costs to develop it. While it is cheaper to use living people, "he explains.

Blockchain in banks, according to Yuri Terekhin, has found application only in individual projects on trade financing and investment business. At the same time, it has become quite ordinary, but expensive technology, which does not bring noticeable advantages beyond narrow niches.

As for big data, as the expert "Force" notes, the information that can be extracted from them for cross-sales of banking products due to IT technologies itself is quite understandable to banks, and is in a state of working with "flow," i.e. it is worked out as current requests from business units. An in-depth study of auxiliary information about customers in social networks, data from retailers and mobile operators at the moment is too expensive, in his opinion, an event whose effectiveness is not clear, and legislative restrictions are significant.

Biometrics in the form promoted by Rostelecom will not lead to a decrease in bank expenses, but only to an increase in its collection, maintenance and use, Terekhin believes.

This is a project that is needed, first of all, by the state, which is why it imposes it on banks, he reckons.

Therefore, in our opinion, the next two years for most Russian banks will be characterized by the evolutionary development of what they already have, without IT-Innovations, with the exception of those that the state will impose on them, "sums up the director of the financial institutions department of Force Development Center.

Biggest IT Market Players for Banks

The total revenue of the 30 largest IT market players for banks in 2018 exceeded 134 million rubles, an increase of 8.9%. The key companies providing services to the banking industry were CFT, Sber Tech, Softline, ITG and Lanit. These five participants in the rating account for about 63.7% of the total revenue of the Top 30.

In the top five of the rating, only Sber Tech recorded a decrease in revenue. It is due to the fact that during 2018 the majority of employees (approximately 8 thousand out of 11 thousand) and Sber Tech projects were transferred directly to Sberbank. Read the details#.D0.9E.D0.B3.D1.80.D0.BE.D0.BC.D0.BD.D1.8B.D0.B9_.C2.AB.D0.A1.D0.B1.D0.B5.D1.80.D1.82.D0.B5.D1.85.C2.BB_.D1.80.D0.B0.D0.B7.D0.BE.D0.BD.D1.80.D0.B0.D0.B2.D0.B8.D0.BB.D1.81.D1.8F_.D0.A1.D0.B1.D0.B5.D1.80.D0.B1.D0.B0.D0.BD.D0.BA.D1.83_.D0.B8_.22.D0.BF.D0.BE.D1.85.D1.83.D0.B4.D0.B5.D0.B5.D1.82.22_.D0.B1.D0.BE.D0.BB.D0.B5.D0.B5_.D1.87.D0.B5.D0.BC_.D0.B2_2_.D1.80.D0.B0.D0.B7.D0.B0 here.

In general, only 3 Top 30 participants reduced their income from projects in banks. In addition to Sber Tech, these are Complink (-1.3%) and DCLogic (-10.7%). The largest growth was recorded in iCore (+ 427.7%) and Tegrus (+ 220.6%).

Biggest IT Market Players for Banks

№ 2018	№ 2017	Company	Revenue from IT projects in banks in 2018, RUB million, incl. VAT	Revenue from IT projects in banks in 2017, RUB million, incl. VAT	Dynamics 2018/2017,%	Key customers
1	-	Financial Technology Center (CFT) *	22,600	20,500	10.2	VTB, TKB Bank, RSHB, Zenit Bank, MTS Bank
2	1	Sber Tech	20,533	30,320	-32,3
3	-	Softline	18 250	13 619	34
4	3	ITG	13,009	12,618	VTB, Bank of Russia, Russian Standard, Center Invest, Gazprombank, Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, Moscow Industrial Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Promsvyazbank, Renaissance-Credit, Sberbank, Svyaz-Bank, YuniKredit Bank, Alfa-Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, InFinBank
**	4	Jet * * Infosystems	12 323	10 128	21.7	VTB Group, Rosbank, Tinkoff Bank, Alfa-Bank, Post Bank, Ak Bars, Bank Uralsib, Bank FC Otkritie, YuniKredit Bank, Bank Saint Petersburg, Rosselkhozbank, Gazprombank
5	5	Lanit * * *	11 164	8 950	|
6	6	I-Teco	10,025	8,629	16,2
7	7	CROC	7,817	5,274	48,2
Tegrus|-		3 565	1 112	220,6
9	8	AMT Group	2,617	1,956	33.8	Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Rosbank, Rosselkhozbank, VTB, Gazprombank
10	9	NVision Group	2,597	1,643	58.1	Denizbank A.Ş., Sberbank, Otkritie FC, MTS Bank
11	-	Complink	2 276	2 307	-1.3
12	-	BSS	2,077	1,876	10,7	Rosselkhozbank, Sberbank, VTB, Svyaz-Bank, Gazprombank, Otkritie FC
13	11	Aplana	1,864	1,520	22.6	Alfa Bank, Sberbank, Raiffeisen Bank, Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Otkritie FC
14	10	Force	1 804	1 545	16.8	Bank Uralsib, ВЭБ.РФ, Alfa-Bank, MTS Bank, CBR
15	18	SysSoft	1 718	1 100	56.2
16	- Neoflex		1,372	1,156	18.7	VTB,,, Renaissance Credit(Auto finance bank OTP Bank Touch Bank),, (VPBank ING BANK Eurasia)
17	-	R-Style Softlab	1 133	861	31.5	Rosselkhozbank, Svyaz-Bank, Soyuz, Promsvyazbank, Eurasian, BMW Bank, SMP Bank
18	-	Cinimex	1,074	934	15	VTB, Raiffeisen Bank, Alfa-Bank, Gazprombank, Rosbank, Rosselkhozbank, Renaissance Credit, Post Bank, etc.
19	12	RDTECH	1,070	1,051	1.8
20	16	Unitech - Universal Technologies	883	670	Raiffeisenbank, Rosselkhozbank
21	-	Itranzishn Rus	868	645	34.6
22	-	iCore	731	139	427.7	Otkritie FC, Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank
23	-	OTR	670	597	12.2	VTB, Alfa-Bank, Gazprombank
24	- Oberon		523	387	35.2	, B&N Bank VTB, SDM Bank,, Otkritie FC, Interprombank Bank Zenit, Renaissance Credit
25	-	DCLogic	501	561	-10.7	Sovcombank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, YuniKredit Bank
Angara|19		475	329	44,4
27	20	X-Com	361	316	Tinkoff Bank, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Raiffeisen Bank, Sberbank
28	-	Active software	329	319	3.1
Digital Design |21		217	206	5,3
30	22	Korus Consulting	216	198	9.1
		Total	134 357	123 355	8.9

* - revenue from IT projects in banks, insurance and investment companies is taken into account
* * - company data added after publication of rating without assignment of position. The final results of the rating are calculated without taking into account these data
* * * - revenue from integration projects, including the supply of software and equipment

Naumen: The most popular digital channels for banks to communicate with customers

On October 25, 2019, NAUMEN presented the results of a study of the availability and quality of service of contact centers of the largest Russian banks, as well as the activity of financial organizations in popular social networks and instant messengers in 2019.

According to the results of test calls and calls to the hundred largest Russian banks, the average waiting time on the line was 40 seconds, which is faster than in banks in the UK and the USA - 41 sec. and 60 sec. respectively. In less than 20 seconds, 57% of calls were received. At the same time, the larger the bank, the longer its clients are forced to wait for the operator's response.

In 96% of calls to call centers of Russian banks, the issue was resolved when first contacted. The FCR (First Call Resolution) indicator is one of the key metrics for assessing the operation of call centers. In Russia, it is about 20% higher than in the UK and the USA.

The average duration of a conversation when calling a bank, within which a specialist consultation was provided, in Russia is about 3.75 minutes. Compared to the UK (6.35 min) and US (6.35 min) banks, information about services and services can be obtained twice as quickly.

"Our research shows that Russian banks comply with a higher level of service, SL, than in contact centers of the USA and Great Britain. In the United States, on average, you have to wait 20 seconds longer. In addition, banks in Russia have great potential to improve customer experience through. In robotizations our study, only 2% of calls were processed using voice robots or -, IVRboats although robots are able to completely replace traditional IVR, reducing the search for the necessary information. By classifying the case based on arbitrary replicas, the robot saves the client from long wandering on numerous branches of the IVR menu, " noted' Mikhail Chereshnev, Marketing Director of the Department of Contact Centers and Robotic Systems NAUMEN '

According to the aggregate assessment of the availability and quality of information services provided, the top four among banks with assets above 10 trillion rubles included Moscow Credit Bank, Rosbank, Gazprombank and YuniKredit Bank.

Among financial companies with assets from 100 billion rubles to 10 trillion rubles, the best indicators are, All-Russian Regional Development Bank (RRDB),, and Moscow regional bank. Дом.РФ Tinkoff Bank

The leaders in service quality and accessibility in the category of banks with assets of less than 100 billion rubles are Metcombank, Ural FD, Khlynov, Rosgosstrakh Bank.

Among the 142 Russian banks with the largest net assets, the most popular digital channel for consulting clients is VKontakte and Facebook social networks: 44% and 35% of financial organizations serve citizens through these platforms, respectively.

Web chats turned out to be the third most popular channel in which 50 out of 142 banks advise. The lowest level of bank availability was recorded in instant messengers, in which options for business communications appeared relatively recently.

"Social networks Instagram and Odnoklassniki, which are quite popular in Russia, turned out to be a less popular communication channel among banks. In the first case, this can be explained by the format of the social network: the focus is content, not communication. In the second - a small demand for interaction through this channel from the audience, " noted Mikhail Chereshnev, Marketing Director of the Department of Contact Centers and Robotic Systems NAUMEN

The bank's presence in social networks does not guarantee feedback. Some banks use these platforms only for promotion marketing purposes. On VKontakte, 33% of banking communities are focused on publishing multimedia content about the brand, banking products and promotions, a similar indicator for Facebook (47%), Instagram (60%) and Odnoklassniki (70%).

The highest quality of consultations in digital channels, that is, the likelihood of receiving the information sought, is also recorded on social networks: on VKontakte, Facebook and Instagram, it is close to 100%. Web chats in this indicator are inferior to both social networks and instant messengers: in them the share of high-quality consultations does not exceed 71%.

The Bank Vostochny and the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development are recognized as the most omnichannel, that is, having the largest number of service channels. Both financial institutions support communication with customers in 7 communication channels.

According to the results of the study, MTS Bank, Zenit, Center-Invest, Tinkoff Bank and Vostochny provide the best service on social networks.

Raiffeisen Bank, Fort-Bank and the National Standard became the leaders in messenger service.

During the study, 142 financial organizations discovered and tested 20 chat bots that work in 12 Russian banks. At the same time, four organizations launched chat bots in two or three digital channels at once.

As a result, three test chatbots did not respond to incoming messages. At the same time, among active chat bots, 9 have basic social skills and are able to answer at least one of the unintentional questions. With 11 robots, you can communicate in free form, and the remaining 6 work as a text IVR, in which selective information about products and services is available in the format of a button menu.

The authors of the study note that the penetration rate of robots in chat rooms of Russian banks is equivalent to the percentage of robotization of Western contact centers, which is at the level of about 13%.

"Only 12 banks in Russia use chatbots to serve customers in digital channels. At the same time, 20% of the text robots we examined demonstrated a truly intelligent approach to processing client questions asked in free form. In particular, these chat bots are able to give customized answers, easily focusing on the types of loans and plastic cards, the nuances of banking products and other topics. It is also especially valuable that the client receives an answer to the question in an average of two seconds, while a similar answer from the operator can be waited a minute or even longer. The impressive results of already working chatbots allow us to conclude that an increasing number of banks will gradually master the potential of AI solutions, striving to make remote service more convenient for customers, " noted Mikhail Chereshnev, Marketing Director of the Department of Contact Centers and Robotic Systems NAUMEN

As part of the study, from September 4 to 10, 2019, more than 4 thousand outgoing calls were made to the contact centers of 142 Russian banks, which occupy the top positions in terms of net assets.

The 2019 study was conducted in three areas:

• telephone service in contact centers;
• service in digital channels, testing the operability of the callback option, sending data by e-mail and sms;
• exploring robots in text channels.

For each of the directions, control questions of a neutral nature were asked regarding typical banking products and services, for example:

• What is your highest interest on a ruble deposit?
• What documents are required to obtain a loan?
• How long will it take to reissue your debit card? Is there an opportunity to make a custom design?

The robots were asked three substantive questions: "What are the requirements for a borrower to get a cash loan? How do I issue a debit card? How do I make a monthly loan payment? " And three questions to define social skills: "Are you a robot? How are you? Tell me about yourself.'

The statistics obtained were compared with the data of foreign analytical reports, as well as with the results of last year's NAUMEN study.

Web development for banks: budgets are growing, but it is increasingly difficult to fight for them

The structure of the custom development market for banks as of 2019 has developed in an interesting way. On the one hand, large IT integrators, contractors on large-scale infrastructure projects, suppliers of ABS, ERP, BPMS and other corporate systems. These are companies traditionally included in various lists of the top 100 in terms of revenue and number of employees.

On the other hand, there are web developers who close the tasks of developing application applications, microservices, frontend solutions. They're not the biggest teams. Today they are attracted to the development of user services, which have become a key competitive tool in the banking market. As a result, this part of the outsourcing market for banks has begun to grow noticeably in recent years - both in terms of investment and in terms of the growth of developer companies, which have transformed from web production into full-cycle IT developers.

This material is devoted to the web development segment. The author talked with representatives of such companies to understand how outsourcing is developing from the point of view of web integrators. The conversation was attended by companies with large projects for banks in the portfolio:.defa, AIC (AIS Media Graph), SimbirSoft, Globus and 65apps (more...).

Banks spent 20 billion on SMS and switch to push notifications

In 2018, banks in Russia spent a total of 20 billion rubles on sending SMS messages, according to AC&M Consulting, whose data were presented at the end of May 2019. Against the background of the growth of operator tariffs, credit organizations are increasingly mastering push notifications.

Banks pay cellular companies to send each SMS. Over the past few years, the cost of one such message has increased 0.03 to 0.7-1 rubles, two market participants told RBC at the end of May 2019.

For customers, the push notification service costs the same as informing via SMS (in some banks this service is free). At the same time, sending messages through the push channel costs banks less.

The highest share of push notifications of the total number of messages (about 30%) that the bank sends to customers turned out to be. The Alfa-Bank Raiffeisen Bank ratio of push notifications and SMS messages is 1 to 3, while Otkritie Bank's share of push notifications reaches 25%. Sberbank The indicator is about 20%, Moscow Credit Bank the indicator is 15%.

The advantages of this technology include its free (a number of banks save by using push notifications from 15 to 25% of the cost of notifying customers), as well as the ability to transfer more information due to the adaptability of the service to mobile devices.

However, banks will not be able to completely abandon SMS mailings, says Oksana Pankratova, an analyst at AC&M Consulting. To send push notifications, three conditions must be met at the same time: the client has a smartphone, a bank application installed on it and an Internet connection.

In Russia, the penetration of smartphones is about 70%, and there are many places where mobile Internet does not work, so the push channel does not give a 100% guarantee of message delivery, the expert explained.[1]

A turning point has come in the relationship between software developers and banks

Against the background of digital transformation in banks, the developer of solutions for the Diasoft financial sector began to transform itself, moving from a vendor model to a consulting one, Alexander Glazkov, chairman of the company's board of directors, told TAdviser in February 2019. The task of the vendor is to offer the market a product that would be many times cheaper for financial organizations than its own development, he says. And before "Diasoft" succeeded. But over the past three years, the situation has changed: this segment has become very innovative, and there are no mature ready-made solutions that meet the needs of digital transformation in the market yet.

Ripening decisions of a new class takes time, says Glazkov. Therefore, now vendors are forced to integrate into the process of bank transformation and jointly develop solutions with them. Due to this, the component of development in Diasoft projects has significantly increased.

We no longer wait for the customer to come to us for a ready-made solution. This is no longer possible, and this trend will continue for another 10 years, while digital transformation will take place. Now we must, together with the bank, determine its needs and integrate into the development. This is more like a consulting process than the supply of ready-made solutions, - said Alexander Glazkov.

He added that at the same time Diasoft continues to perform the functions of a vendor, but it has ceased to "cling to the code." The code of the developed solution is opened by the bank. This carries great risks for the vendor, but he builds relationships with customers in such a way as to minimize them.

Diasoft notes that quite recently banks tried to take over almost the entire development of banking software, and this created difficulties for the business of software developers. But in the end, banks failed to do this, and now they again began to resort to the services of third-party companies.

Technology must first mature - this is once. Secondly, internal development does not have the same motivation for efficiency as a third-party developer. Therefore, after trying to take over the development, build from scratch, banks again began to turn to technology suppliers more often. Our business in 2018 grew by 30% on this wave. In the future, banks will continue in-house development, but with more active interaction with suppliers of application software, - said the chairman of the board of directors of Diasoft.

World analysts, Gartner, in particular, talk about the relevance of the idea of ​ ​ a two-speed architecture, which is based on product accounting systems that have to be changed for the digital economy. Historically, they were created in order for bank employees to work in them - these are functional systems for workers, Glazkov notes. And as part of the digital transformation, banks are growing demand for systems that implement a process architectural approach - both for customer service and in the operating part. Now employees are transferred to processes.

Such products for customer service, according to Diasoft, banks began to be introduced a couple of years ago as part of a digital transformation. This entailed the need to redo accounting systems as well, because now they must not serve bank employees, but work to support processes, says Alexander Glazkov.

For example, when we made a project at VTB on a mortgage - this is a frontal system, our integration costs with the back office turned out to be the largest. This is because the back office was not suitable for digital transformation, it needs to be redone. And this is the next wave in the banks that we are preparing for, because such "weights on their feet" interfere with digital transformation. Frontal systems require a change in the entire IT landscape, explains Glazkov.

Another trend in the field of banking solutions in Diasoft is called microservice architecture. The first versions of the products that make up the solution stack for microservice architecture appeared less than 5 years ago, Glazkov notes. Then it suddenly became popular, and now almost all banks want to have only such a stack. It can include, for example, software with, open source Kafka,, etc Kubernetes Docker.

At first it seemed like a hype, but in the end these products had a fantastic effect, meet expectations and risks. And they force us as a vendor to quickly rebuild into a new technological stack in accordance with the architectural transformation. Banking software vendors who do not do this simply will not survive in the market, says the chairman of the board of directors of Diasoft.

2018

Market situation

The number of financial institutions continues to decline in the Russian banking sector. 2017 showed that not only small or medium-sized financial organizations have problems, but also such large players as Ugra Bank, Binbank, Promsvyazbank or Otkritie FC. Among the existing participants in the financial market, there is a noticeable increase in competition, which is expressed both in attempts to provide more favorable conditions for the main products, and in the form of offers or services not from the financial sphere from affiliated companies or partners.

At the moment, the implementation of "deferred demand" for IT projects, which was discussed several years ago, has become noticeable among large financial companies in the banking informatization market. Projects frozen in 2015-2016 are now being reviewed in order to launch them in the current environment, - said Anton Golovaty, director of business development at Lanit-Integration (part of the Lanit group of companies).

If we talk about small and medium-sized financial organizations, then the situation is completely the opposite. You can see the freezing of projects and minimizing the cost of maintaining the IT infrastructure, as well as the transition to open source options and an attempt to solve most problems on your own.

Most likely, this trend will continue in the next couple of years and it is quite possible that we will continue to enlarge the market. Similarly, the risks with which we have been living for the past few years will remain: increased pressure on the country's financial system and sanctions against financial market leaders. Both risks can lead to a more detailed consideration of alternative options for solving typical problems, - says Anton Golovaty.

According to Pavel Zubkov, director of the department for work with financial institutions of I-Teco, the informatization market in the Russian banking sector is stagnating, excluding state banks and individual retail players.

In my opinion, there is a transition from a strategy of active development of IT infrastructure to a strategy of conservation and maintenance of the current IT perimeter. As for forecasts for the foreseeable future, everything will depend on the economic situation in the country as a whole. I can only say that the growth of the share of insourcing and import substitution in the financial sector in the coming years will continue, "he says.

Yuri Teryokhin, director of financial institutions at Force - Development Center (Force Group of Companies), believes that the gap between large and small banks will deepen even further, caused by both the excessive concentration of assets in TOP-10 banks and the bank license reform planned in the Central Bank - by dividing banks into large federal ones with a full license and small regional ones with a limited license.

Smaller banks, he said, would attract customers by offering better terms and products without the added cost of automation. The main IT costs should be expected from large banks and medium-sized banks from TOP-50. They will be the "engine" of innovations in banking informatization, the representative of Force believes.

The rapid stratification of the banking informatization market against the background of industry reform is also noticed by Julia Amiridi, Deputy General Director for Business Development at Intersoft Lab.

Competition between large state-controlled players such as Sberbank, VTB, Rosselkhozbank, temporarily "nationalized" Otkritie FC, BINbank and Promsvyazbank, subsidiaries of foreign banks and several of the country's largest private banks continuously stimulates investment in IT. At the same time, other market participants, not so successful and deprived of funding at the expense of the state, are forced to tighten their belts more easily and have been minimizing IT budgets for several years. As a result, the technological gap between top financial institutions and other banks continues to grow, she explains.

Revenue of Russian IT companies from projects in banks

№	Company	Revenue from IT projects in banks in 2017, RUB million, incl. VAT	Revenue from IT projects in banks in 2016, RUB million, incl. VAT	Dynamics 2017/2016	Key customers
1	Sberbank-Technologies	30 320	20 341	49.1 [[Sberbank of the Russian Federation	Sberbank of Russia]]
2	GC Technoserv1	13 822.1	13 386.1	3.3 [[Sberbank of the Russian Federation	Sberbank of Russia]], Central Bank of the Russian Federation, VTB, Promsvyazbank, Credit Europe Bank, Otkritie FC Bank, Nordea Bank
3	ITG Holding	12,618	12,040	4.8 [[Sberbank of the Russian Federation	Sberbank of Russia]], Gazprombank, Raiffeisen Bank, VTB, OTP Bank, Roseximbank, YuniKredit Bank, Rosgostrakh Bank, Alfa Bank, Russian Standard Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Svyaz-Bank
4	Jet Infosystems	10 128.3	8 847.6	14.5	,,, NATIONAL PAYMENT CARD SYSTEM Sviaz-Bank Uralsib Bank PASHA Bank (Azerbaijan),, Bank Orange,, Sberbank of Russia,, VTB,, and Gazprombank Bank Russian Standard UBRD Rosbank others
5	Lanit2	8 950	6 381	40.3 [[Sberbank of the Russian Federation	Sberbank of Russia]], Alfa Bank, RosBank, Gazprombank, Rosselkhozbank
6	I-Teco Group	8 629.7	8 926.5	- 3.3
7	CROC	5,274,3	6,271,1	-15.9 [[Unistream	Unistream]], Svyaz-Bank, Alfa Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Deutsche Bank, Rosevrobank, Home Credit and Finance Bank, etc.
AMT Group RSHB VTB 24 Rosbank Opening	1 956,3	1 870,6	4,6	, , , , CENTRAL BANK OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
9	NVision Group	1 942.9	494.8	292.7 [[MTS Bank	MTS]] Bank, Sberbank of Russia, Gazprombank
10	GC Swagger	1 545	1 231	25.5 Alfa Bank| Vnesheconombank| VTB Uralsib,,,
11	Aplana Group	1 520	-	- [[Sberbank of the Russian Federation	Sberbank of Russia]], Alfa Bank, AK BARS Bank
13	Borlas Group	825.7	512.9	61
14	Amtel-Service	733.8	630.2	16.4	-
15	Maykor	733.2	673	8.9 [[Sberbank of the Russian Federation	Sberbank of Russia]], Binbank, Rosselkhozbank, Alfa Bank
16	Toilet - Universal Technologies	670	149.4	348.6
ICL-KPO VS Gazprombank Tatfondbank AK BARS Bank Uralsib Moscow Mortgage Agency (MIA) Power bank UniCredit Bank Autogradbank	472	488	-3,3	, , , , , , , , Bank Avers
18	SysSoft	393.8	145.5	170.6	-
Angara Technologies Group	329,2	189,9	73,3
X-Com Tinkoff Bank Gazprombank Promsvyazbank Raiffeisen Bank Sberbank of Russia	315,6	290,3	8,7	, , , , , BNP Paribas
21	Digital Design	206	-	-
22	Korus Consulting	198.1	112.7	75.7 [[Bank Saint Petersburg	Bank Saint Petersburg]], Sberbank of Russia, Gazprombank, Loko-Bank
23	ELMA	188.8	118.6	59.2	Kapital Bank (Azerbaijan), NSPK, Solid Bank, Vesta Bank, Loko-Bank, SME Bank
24	iSimpleLab	167.7	168	-0.2 [[Bank of Russia	Bank Russia]], Uralsib Bank, MInBank (Moscow Industrial Bank), Almazergienbank, FORA-Bank, BCS - Investment Bank, Soyuz, Krayinvestbank
iDSystems	87,2	84,3	3,5
Security code CENTRAL BANK OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION VTB|*	267,8	73,7	263,6	, , Sberbank

1 Technoserv Group of Companies includes Technoserv-Consulting, whose revenue from IT projects in banks is 1,327,5 million rubles. for 2017 and 1,251 million rubles. for 2016 year.	TAdviser 2018
2 Выручка от интеграционных проектов, включая поставки LOD and equipment
* Revenue from projects in banks, insurance and investment companies. Data provided after rating publication

Current state and prospects of banking informatization

As for the current state of banking informatization, according to experts, the main business processes are automated in all banks. At the same time, analytical systems are actively used, special attention is paid to information security, the use of data centers is deepened, and large banks use Big Data technologies.

According to Yuri Teryokhin, Director for Financial Institutions at Force - Development Center (Force Group of Companies), in the next two years, systems that automate not the basic functions of banks, but their surrounding landscape and internal structure and positively affect the efficiency of their main activities will be improved. They are already used by banks and are in the ascending stages of development:

• regulatory functions: Basel, IFRS, asset and liability management,
• information security,
• Integration with external value-added service providers
• in-depth automation of decision-making processes, which is called "artificial intelligence" (AI) in banks for advertising purposes; Transfer part of offline processes online.

This area will account for the main IT costs of banks, in addition to the costs of maintaining existing systems. Basically, these are custom or own developments of banks, which will make it possible to enter the banking automation market for IT companies from the non-banking sphere. In addition, it is expected that over the next 2 years a bank of "bad" debts will be created, which will require specific automation to work with toxic assets, which will also require custom development, he said.

Alexey Katrich, the company's commercial director, Technoserv Consulting"," suggests that the key function of banking retail is gradually becoming human identification, and banks are turning into trusting partners when conducting transactions.

Today, the development of new technologies - cryptography, biometrics - allows you to translate the function of a trusted agent into digital space. There are different technologies for this, including blockchain. All this leads to a tectonic shift in banking, when financial companies begin to move from model b2c to model b2b. The concept of bank-as-a-platform appears - banks reserve the function of controlling the main banking risks, the function of guaranteeing the safety of deposits, but all relations with the outside world begin to be built through an open architecture, through API, which allows external organizations to connect to the banking platform. Many products become white label products. And now you can buy financial services at the retailer's checkout or at a gas station, he explains.

Maxim Bolyshev, Deputy Director of the Banking Company Department ON RS-Bank , R-Style Softlab speaks of the ongoing digitalization of the market. He notes that banks are becoming more "smart" - the time for smart banking is coming. Requirements for the saturation of remote channels and the quality of services provided are increasing, banks pay more attention to collecting data on customers, processing them, increasing the speed of decision-making and making proposals. Systems using artificial intelligence are becoming more in demand, and. machine learning Data Science

In the next two years, we will not only see bank branches without personnel, but we will also be able to become a bank client without coming to the branch, he predicts.

Andrey Gorshkov, Director of the AMT G roup Network Integration Department, notes that due to the reorganization of the banking segment and the consolidation of financial organizations, changes are taking place in information and information and communication systems.

In order to simplify operation, reduce the cost of operation, lease communication channels when combining banks, bank information systems, processing, telecommunication infrastructure and communication channels are also combined, and technical solutions are unified at all levels. Given the fact that these solutions are usually built on different principles at different times, unification work requires careful planning of all actions during the migration process from old to new unified solutions. When switching, a centralized model is usually preferred, when all the main information resources and, accordingly, telecommunication nodes are located in several geographically separated reserved data centers.

Yuri Vostrikov, commercial director of Norbit (Lanit group of companies), says that technologies provide banks with advantages in the fight for the client. The banking sector is changing quite quickly, so flexible improvements in the functionality of long-implemented systems, including CRM, have become in demand. For example, many banks supplement CRM systems with new tools that can simplify communication with customers and partners, eliminate the loss of leads, and use customer data more efficiently.

A special place among automated information systems is already occupied by mobile applications and Internet banks. Due to further digitalization, the share of online operations will grow. This will require banks to be more careful about remote calculations and the security of user data. Banks in the struggle for the client will use digital technologies to the maximum. Therefore, the role of divisions responsible for IT-Innovations in banks will significantly increase, the expert says.

In general, in his opinion, banks will have a lot of work to do to implement large-scale projects related to the program for the development of financial technologies until 2020, presented by the Central Bank. In the near future, cryptocurrency and blockchain will fall under legal regulation, and many financial organizations will include digital transformation in their business development strategy.

Mikhail Golovachev, General Director of Amtel-Service, speaks of stagnation in the banking informatization market due to a counterbalance to negative factors, such as a decrease in the number of banks and a rather difficult economic situation in the country, and market drivers such as Big Data, Machine Learning, information security, including biometric identification. As a result - a significant drop in demand for IT equipment and infrastructure projects, and at the same time, continuous growth in the information security sector, as well as an increase in interest in IT services, including clouds, outsourcing IT and information security functions.

In our opinion, the overall dynamics of the Russian banking informatization market in 2017 does not exceed 5-10%, while growth in information security and service & outsourcing areas is more than 20%. In the coming years, we predict similar dynamics at no more than 10%, mainly due to the largest players in the banking sector, as well as pragmatism and restraint of smaller financial organizations, - said Mikhail Golovachev.

According to Sergei Sherstobitov, CEO of Angara Technologies Group, many banks in Russia already have a very saturated IT infrastructure, while the company notes a decrease in the pace of banking informatization.

In the next two years, most of the information security projects in large banks will be focused on the development of internal information security monitoring centers (SOC), and for medium and small banks, the main trend will be the transition to a service model and the transfer of the maximum number of IT and information security services to outsourcing, which will significantly optimize costs and increase quality by profiling these services from professional contractors, - he says.

At the same time, the clear process of consolidation of bank assets will continue, therefore, the most successful, according to Sergei Sherstobitov, will be those banks that will be able to quickly attach new and dissimilar financial structures to their organizational and technological eco-landscape.

He also adds that the current transition of banks to "digital" will spur the development of the segment of mobile applications and chatbots, which are aimed at improving interaction with the client and maximizing personalization. It is the flexibility and convenience of online interaction with a partner bank that will become a decisive factor in the choice of services of a particular bank by the client.

Konstantin Usakovsky, Deputy Commercial Director of Aplana Group of Companies, believes that the banking industry in Russia has practically reached the global level of informatization. At the same time, the competition of banking products and services has become so high that it is often difficult for the end consumer to choose the advantages of one or another bank.

The stages of centralization of IT systems and global optimization, he said, are already behind. The Central Bank's course on restructuring this market leads to the fact that a large number of tasks for informatization boil down to the integration of various banking information infrastructures, the choice of optimal solutions and models. In parallel, "constant" issues are being resolved to update the infrastructure, increase the level of reliability and availability of services, and reduce the time to market.

In the next two years, the tendency to develop the provision of banking services through remote channels without visits to branches will continue, the infrastructure for non-cash transactions will develop even more actively, he predicts.

Alexey Trefilov, director of ELMA, notes that in terms of technology, Russia and the CIS often lag decently behind their Western colleagues, but in the financial industry we are developing on a par with advanced countries, ahead of many in Europe.

Large and clumsy banks with outdated services are still doing well there. In our country, they would quickly lose the competition if they did not have one or another monopoly, the expert believes.

In Russia, according to him, there is an active "arms race" among banks. There is a demand for high-quality products, and supply from vendors, and high consumer expectations. No one can afford to issue a bank guarantee for weeks - today everything needs to be done faster, he explains.

The forecast for the next two years - the competition will intensify, tighten, and everyone will benefit from it. First of all, a consumer who will receive an even better service, - adds Alexey Trefilov.

Vadim Shustov, Deputy General Director of Jet Infosystems, says that Russian banks today continue to move from the old, classic model of working with customers through cash desks to new digital formats. First of all, this is due to the full-scale development of digital banking tools and greater informatization of service processes in the branches themselves.

This trend concerns strong players in the banking sector - representatives of TOP-20. Obviously, they will continue their technological growth in the next two years. The rest, due to budgetary restrictions, will focus on certain client segments and focus more on survival and preservation of the existing base, he believes.

Alexey Kolesnikov, Sales Director of iSimpleLab, talks about the growth of the banking automation market, linking it to the fact that banks are changing their concept of work and are looking for new sources of income.

The main driver is now becoming the "digitalization" of banking services. That is why for the next two years we do not predict a decline in demand for services such as remote customer service systems and services that develop on the basis of remote channels, he says.

Yuri Goltzer, technical director of the CRM department at Navicon, also sees a growth trend. According to him, the banking sector, being dependent both on the increased requirements of the regulator and on the growing needs of customers, is one of the first in the Russian economy to respond to the emergence of new technologies.

According to him, one of the main innovations that are trying to implement in the Russian banking sector right now is the remote identification of customers using the Unified Biometric System (EBS). It allows banks to finally implement an all-digital banking strategy.

We expect leading banks to gradually introduce it into their processes in 2018. The share of products for which the main and even the only channel of provision will be the figure will increase: first of all, smartphones and other "improvised" devices, - he explains.

Also, banks continue to experiment with big data and artificial intelligence. The scope of their application is extensive, and banks are trying to "grope" where such innovations will be most effective. So far, areas such as personalization of products, services and communications with customers using predictive analytics, as well as the use of speech technologies, voice and chat bots, the introduction of decision support systems and robotization of internal processes (RPA) are leading.

Yuri Golzer sees the technology of robotization of business processes as the most promising in the current conditions. Banks are actively investing in technologies that allow them to reduce costs - and with the help of software robots, they can significantly reduce the costs of employees for performing routine, repetitive operations (paperwork and exchange, forming schedules and shifts, registration of vacations). RPA already helps large foreign and global banks minimize or even eliminate human interference in task fulfillment and management decision-making - and, accordingly, increase operational efficiency up to 70% -growth. Gradually, the trend is taking root in Russia, he notes.

Artem Gavrichenkov, technical director of Qrator Labs, says that according to the state of the information infrastructure, banks - not only Russian, but both foreign and international - are divided into two categories. Some of them pass through the crucible of digital transformation, converting their experience and expertise in banking into the conditions and requirements of the modern consumer; others immediately emerged in a new capacity, and it was this new quality that became their hallmark.

At the same time, it is difficult to argue that the digital transformation has already been completely completed at least somewhere. Despite the external, often lightweight, IT software, the process of migrating from the infrastructure of the previous generation to the new generation is always expensive, slow and problematic. However, over the next two years, we have the right to expect a massive finish of these procedures, after which the first category will noticeably lose in numbers, the expert is sure.

You can already see what the next generation of financial companies will look like. This is in the first place, as well as in the second and third places - IT companies, with certain specifics, including, for example, increased requirements for information security, privacy and protection of user data. However, in general, any qualities inherent in IT companies will be present in banks to a large extent, which, of course, will require (already requires) the latter to abandon a number of habits and features of corporate culture, he adds.

Barriers of the banking informatization market

At the same time, the tendency to create its own software companies that serve the needs of leading credit institutions on an uncontested basis can in the near future lead to a decrease in the quality of software and IT services and reduce the pace of their informatization.

But even against this background, it is difficult to predict any technological breakthroughs among smaller banks living in an IT austerity regime. They are focused on maintaining the current IT infrastructure and regulator requirements and are minimally invested in IT, choosing fast-impact projects aimed primarily at reducing costs and increasing profitability, says Julia Amiridi.

Maxim Nikitin, vice president of Maykor, CEO of BTE (BTE), adds that the Russian financial sector does not always have time to pick up the latest developments and timely implement them into the operational process.

The fact is that traditionally the most favorable environment for developing the introduction of new technologies is a flexible decentralized business. In our country, this type of business organization is virtually absent. In addition, Russia is significantly lagging behind legal regulation in the development and application of the latest technologies, which also slows down the process. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the fact that any sector needs investments for a technological breakthrough, which, due to the difficult economic situation, cannot be expected in the near future. In this regard, we assume that in the next two years the introduction of technological innovations into banking will occur moderately, "says Maykor vice president.

2016

The state of the Russian banking informatization market in 2016 and the forecast for 2017-2018

The Russian banking informatization market is going through far from the best of times. Most of the experts surveyed by TAdviser talk about stagnation or a decrease in market volume. The bulk of the projects currently represent the support and development of previously implemented systems, or are aimed at optimizing and reducing costs (# [1].

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