In early 2018 in the macro-region, which occupies more than a third of the country, only about 35 percent of the settlements had banks, or their inhabitants could exercise the full range of financial services through the Internet, ATMs and electronic terminals. To five percent (the small remote villages), these services were virtually unavailable, the rest are available.
the Strategy of increasing financial inclusion in Russia (2018-2020) made regional and Federal banks active development of remote services and mobile applications. The changes that have occurred in the two years are impressive: on the map of endoscopes DFO has almost disappeared “red” zones, signifying the almost complete lack of banking services. Now this color is marked localities with insufficient level of service. In some regions, for example, in the Jewish autonomy, the Magadan region and Chukotka “red” zones disappeared completely, although in some regions (Yakutia, Kamchatka, Northern areas of the Khabarovsk and Primorye territories) they are still preserved.
This largely contributed to the elimination of digital divide, because of remote banking services are impossible without quality Internet. Currently, access is provided 87 percent of the settlements of the Far East. This had a positive impact on the financial accessibility, despite a continued decline in the number of Bank branches, particularly in settlements with low population. At the same time almost all the Russian post offices in the country, including in the far East, there were branches of “Bank-by-Mail”, and the terminals for receiving and issuing cash.
According to the far Eastern main branch of the Bank of Russia, in 2019, the number of electronic terminals in the far East (excluding the data for the TRANS-Baikal region and Buryatia Republic) exceeded 140,8 thousand units. About a third of all banking offices, ATMs and terminals is concentrated in the most densely populated region in Primorye. 90 percent of the municipalities in the region have access to the Internet, and hence the opportunity to use financial services remotely. The number of banking terminals increased over the past year to 39 million (37 percent). In 26 settlements at the box office of rural stores payment terminals with the possibility of cash withdrawals, their network will expand. The same work is actively in other entities.
– Primor different from other regions the best infrastructure and transport accessibility. In General for the Far East is characterized by a large number of settlements with population less than 250 or even 100. However, financial inclusion in the district polychaetsI with remote banking products, – said the head of the far Eastern main branch of the Bank of Russia Sergey Belov.
the far East made in 2019 about a billion non-cash transactions, including more than 340 million – in Primorye. This figure has grown by half (on average in DFO growth of 41 per cent). One reason for the surge is the launch of cashless payments in public transport of Vladivostok. At the same time, four percent decrease in the number of operations to obtain the Primorye cash.
– Increase the availability of financial resources for the population improves the quality of life and helps to develop small and medium businesses. We have three settlements – in terneyskiy, Dalnerechensk and Lazovsky areas where there are problems with the Internet, so the banks to go in there hard, and only “Mail-Bank” fills this gap, – said the Minister of economic development of Primorsky Krai Natalia naboychenko.
more and more of the far East, including older people, are used in everyday life cashless technology. Gives the fruits of the program of increase of financial literacy of the population conducted by the Bank of Russia since 2008. Only in the past year in DFO was held 364 events in the framework of this project.
Now the Russian banking system tested for durability and availability in a pandemic coronavirus infection. Residents advised not to leave once again on street. And even those who used the old-fashioned to go to the Bank, are forced to think about the development of digital technology. Because so much can be done remotely in a private office or in a mobile application to pay utility bills and communication, fines, purchases. You can order the card and transfer money through the system of quick payments on mobile phone number, even if sender and receiver accounts in different credit institutions.
Mikhail Mamuta, head of the service for protection of consumer rights and ensuring access to financial services CBR:
Financial markets are not only the relations between economic agents, and especially relationships between people. It strategy of the Bank of Russia in the first place is the ability of the Russian financial market to make people’s lives better, to create favorable conditions for business operation and to support economic growth. A measure of the quality of development of the market ultimately is the degree of satisfaction of citizens financial products and services.
