Introduction
In the Russian Federation, banks are established and operated in accordance with federal law No. 395-1 of 7 July 1995 «on banks and banking activities».
The current legislation sets out the basic principles for the establishment of the Russian banking system, which include: a two-tier structure, the implementation of banking supervision and supervision by the central bank, the universality of secondary banks and the commercial direction of their activities.
Russia’s banking system is a set of сo-operative parts, including the Central bank, lending institutions as well as banking infrastructure and banking legislation.
The Russian banking system consists of two main levels: commercial banks and the Central bank. Most commercial banks offer demand and savings accounts, while only more mature banks in Russia offer currency exchange, investment and corporate services.
This essay including some points:
1. Banks in Russia;
2. Russian currency;
3. ATMs at banks in Russia;
4. Debit and credit cards;
5. International banks;
6. Online and phone banking;
7. Sanctions;
8. Taxation.
1. Banks in Russia
The Russian banking system has a two-level structure. The first level is represented by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The second level includes representatives of banks and non-bank financial companies, as well as branches and representative of foreign banks.
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation is a large regulator of the Russian financial market, performing the functions of monetary supervision, bank supervision and management of the payment and settlement system of the country.
The state-owned Sberbank is considered the largest bank in Russia. Russia's top banks offer a variety of services, from standard personal accounts and mortgages to corporate loans, brokerage and investment, and state-owned Sberbank and VTB have more assets than other banks.
All commercial banks operating in the Russian Federation are universal, divided into public banks, private banks and foreign-capital banks. Banks in Russia can be created in the form of any commercial company, today in the Russian banking system, banks operate in the form of Joint-Stock Companies, Public Joint-Stock Companies and limited liability companies. The Bank of Russia has the right to open its own structural departments-branches and representative offices, as well as other forms of internal structural departments.
The most popular and largest banks in Russia are sberbank; VTB; Gazprombank; VTB24; Bank Otkritie Financial Corporation; Bank of Moscow. Other Russian banks include Russian Agricultural Bank, Alfa Bank, Promsvyazbank, Bank UralSib and Sovcombank.
2. Russia’s monetary unit
The currency of Russia is named ruble or rouble (RUB), 100 coins (or kopecks) making up a Russian ruble. The most commonly used Russian currency money banknotes are 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 RUB, while coins are available in denominations of ruble 1, 2, 5, к.10 and к.50. The Russian currency exchange rate on the website of the Central Bank of Russia publishes The Daily ruble exchange rate for a number of currencies.
3. ATMs at banks in Russia
In large Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, it is easy to find ATMs, many of the top Russian banks operate ATMs with instructions in English and Russian, but if you travel to rural or remote areas, you should carry some Russian money with you as a backup. From a security point of view, it is best to use an ATM operated by one of the major banks and avoid the use of isolated ATMs, especially at night.
When using a foreign card to withdraw cash at an ATM, you may be charged a fixed fee. In some cases, the fees will be higher if you use an ATM operated by one of the bank's competitors.
ATMs allow 24/7 cash withdrawals, and you can also withdraw cash at branches, which are usually open all day on weekdays until mid-afternoon on Saturday.
4. Debit and credit cards
Visa and Mastercard are the two most commonly used card types in Russia, although Maestro and Visa Electron cards sometimes open the first account for young people. Although the range of credit cards in Russia is available, they are not as common as in some European countries. Most foreign credit cards are usually accepted in hotels and restaurants, although you still need to pay cash in some places, such as museums, train stations and small shops.
In 2015, the Russian began to develop a new national payment card called Mir (world) in response to a US. sections that caused Visa and Mastercard to stop processing payments from some banks. Some large companies and banks, such as Sberbank, have begun accepting Mir cards, and the national payment system will soon be available in Europe. The idea of the card is to create a seamless trading system for the whole of Russia. Some banks offer debit cards that offer contactless technology. Contactless payments involve tapping your card on the card reader, instead of entering your PIN number, and you can make transactions of up to RUB 1,000 using this feature. Interesting that, at the end of 2008, there were 119 million bank cards in circulation in Russia.
5. International banks in Russia
Russa has many operating branches and foreign banks. UniCredit became Russia's largest foreign bank after taking over Rosbank, a subsidiary of Société Générale. Here are some of the largest international banks in Russia: UniCredit Bank Russia; Rosbank Société Générale; Raiffeisenbank Russia; Home Credit and Finance Bank; Citibank Russia; ING Bank Eurasia; Nordea Bank Russia; OTP Bank Russia; Credit Europe Bank Russia; Banca Intesa Russia; Deutsche Bank; Commerzbank Eurasia.
6. Internet and phone banking
The main banks of Russia have their own online banking services that allow you to perform a variety of daily tasks. Online banking provides services such as internal and foreign currency transfers, bill payments, regular orders and electronic statements. When opening an account at a major Russian bank, you usually get a user ID number and password to set up your online banking. Most banks in Russia also offer phone banking services, and some offer SMS banking services that allow you to top up mobile credit and transfer money.
7. Sanctions
In March 2014, during the Crimean crisis of 2014, following the adoption of the secession referendum, the declaration of independence of the Republic of Crimea from Ukraine and the process of joining Russia, US President Barack Obama announced sanctions against Russian banks. International payment system Visa Inc. And Mastercard suddenly stopped the service of credit cards issued by Russian banks. Non-cash transactions of SMP Bank (owned by the Rotenberg brothers) and Sobinbank (a 100% subsidiary of Russia) were also frozen. many Russian residents turn to the business of the National Bank, although they still have no doubt about the reliability of foreign multinational financial institutions. Тhe profit of the Russian banking system in January 2019 amounted to 264 billion rubles. This is 3.7 times more than in the same period last year: in January 2018, the profit was 71 billion rubles.
8. Taxation
Тhe tax code has undergone huge reforms. Because of high tax rates, large amounts of unreported income (especially those associated with organized criminal groups) and widespread fraud, governments have failed to collect a large portion of their legally entitled Income. In the early 2000s, in order to combat fraud and encourage investment, the government simplified the tax system and reduced the overall tax burden, especially on businesses. For example, corporate tax has been reduced by about one third, a flat tax on income and a VAT on goods sold. A single natural resource extraction tax also replaces the three existing resource taxes. VAT is a major source of government revenue.
Conclusion
Therefore, the banking system in Russia is quite structured. It turned out that the Russian banking system consists of two main parts:
- commercial banks;
- the Central bank.
Most commercial banks offer demand and savings accounts, while only more mature banks in Russia offer currency exchange, investment and corporate services.
The banking system of the Russian Federation is a series of interrelated elements consisting of the central bank, lending institutions (the latter including commercial banks and other credit institutions, as well as clearing institutions that can be merged into holding companies), as well as banking infrastructure and banking legislation.
The six most popular banks in Russia are:
- Sberbank;
- VTB;
- Gazprombank;
- VTB24;
- Bank Otkritie Financial Corporation;
- Bank of Moscow.
- Other Russian banks include Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank, state-owned), Alfa Bank, Promsvyazbank, Bank UralSib and Sovcombank. Russian Banking systems develops and provides:
- internet and phone banking;
- debit and credit cards;
- ATMs at banks;
- loans for different necessities ect. for comfort of people.
