Sberbank Chairman of the Board German Gref spoke at one of the key events in the financial industry, the Financial Congress of the Bank of Russia. At the plenary session «Structural transformation of the economy and financial markets» he spoke about the importance of a good foundation of the sphere, built over the past decade, and noted the competitiveness of domestic banks, trained by a large number of crises and nurtured by the professional policy of the regulator.
photo: Sber Press Service
In his report, the president of Sberbank emphasized that the transformation of the financial market under the leadership of the regulator has taken place over the past 8-10 years. This work helped the domestic banking system prepare for the events of February 2022. Thanks to it, credit institutions were able to adequately withstand all the tests: not a single Russian bank collapsed, depositors did not suffer. At the moment, due to the difficult economic situation, the industry is in permanent adjustment. This allows you to proactively meet new challenges.
“In the next 10 years, volatility will definitely not end. What could be the answer to this? We must learn to live under water, this is normal. Management models need to change a lot. If earlier 85% of the staff and 85% of the time of managers were spent on the provision of services or the production of goods, and 15% on change management, project management and setting up all systems, now the proportion is reversed. If you have such a structure, then it can be 90 by 10 or 99 by 1. If you are in this trend, you can adapt», —Gref said.
It is necessary to use the latest technologies for management decisions, Gref believes. To build complex systems and train complex models, you need huge capacities, the requirements for which are constantly growing, but at the moment the country is coping with this.
The President of Sberbank also answered the question of what threats he sees not for the domestic financial sector, but for the country's economy as a whole.
“What can be the response of the state to these threats? Liberalization and competition, the creation of competitive conditions for the private sector and the reduction of budgetary appetites so as not to increase the tax burden, so as not to create counter incentives for the economic growth of investments, which are now extremely important. The process is developing logically, and there are strategic sectors that should be prioritized, regardless of whether they make economic sense at the moment. They must be developed with the help of the state. The infrastructure must be rebuilt. And this requires huge investments from the state. Accordingly, the requirements for the effectiveness of public policy in general increase during this period of time. And the rest is tax incentives and public sector cuts where competition is needed», — answered Gref.
He also noted that the events of 2022–2023 did not have a significant impact for the work of Sberbank in terms of the strategic cycle. The strategy is still planned for a three-year period, small add-ons are made every three months, financial indicators are adjusted every six months.
“It is believed that until the thunder breaks out, the peasant will not cross himself. We don't. Thunder is always near. The more you work with data, the more you see: as soon as you relax, you immediately lose some indicator. Competition is constant thunder. We are under pressure from competition, volatility and many other factors. Under these conditions, we need to work and plan effectively. The longer the strategy, the better», — said Gref.
The session was also attended by: Elvira Nabiullina, Chairman of the Bank of Russia; Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Martyn Galstyan; Sergey Shvetsov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Moscow Exchange; President, Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Andrey Kostin; Chief Managing Director of Alfa-Bank Vladimir Verkhoshinsky. The discussion was moderated by RBC host Elina Tikhonova.