Participants of the Moscow Financial Forum discussed new digital platform solutions for business

As part of the tenth anniversary Moscow Financial Forum, a session titled 'New Digital Platform Solutions for Business' was held. In the context of global economic transformations and increasing sanctions pressure, digital financial tools are becoming not just an option, but a necessity for sustainable development of the economy.

The discussion brought together representatives from state institutions, banking sector, and digital platforms. The session was moderated by Ivan Chebeskov, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.

“Today we are discussing new platform solutions. We are at a stage where many of them are still being formed. Some solutions are brand new. We need to think about what principles should be established to create clear rules of the game for everyone. But overall, we have now reached a consensus that everything will continue to move in the direction of creating platforms and digitalizing assets. This is beneficial for attracting investments and economic growth,” said Ivan Chebeskov.

Vasily Osmakov, First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, spoke about the role the state plays in the digital field.

"As a regulator, we are rather trying to support initiatives. We work with digital platforms to promote Russian products abroad, and we are building gateways and interfaces between market platforms and our core industrial platform, which serves both as a catalog and as an ecosystem for providing government services," Osmakov noted.

Ilan Shor, General Director of A7 LLC, spoke about problems of a planetary scale: "Firstly, the global banking system is politicized. Secondly, over decades, the compliance system has become virtually unbearable for 30-40% of businesses."

Vladimir Verkhoshinsky, Chief Managing Director of Alfa-Bank JSC, spoke about new horizons. "All business will be divided among neo-tech platforms, large digital giants that encompass finance, retail, telecom, and cybersecurity. All this is happening naturally in the digital world, in the digital economy. These are efficient companies. They earn more, can invest more, become even more efficient, earn even more, and as a result, large players become larger," he noted.

Participants agreed that premature, strict regulation could stifle innovation, but a complete lack of rules is also dangerous.

"As a development institution in the field of economic activity, we constantly maintain a very broad range of communication with companies on a wide spectrum of issues. The topic of settlements is always relevant; finding the right channel is very important. This is because there is currently significant fragmentation and a lack of clear reliability criteria for such platforms and solutions," stated Petr Zaselsky, Chairman of the Board of JSC ROSEXIMBANK.

The perspective of marketplaces was presented by Vahe Ovasapyan, General Director of Ozon Fintech: "Digital tools solve many problems in the financial market. Primarily, they offer the ability to reduce costs and increase asset liquidity."

The speakers reached a consensus: digital platforms and tools are not the future; they are the present of the Russian economy. Their development should be driven from the bottom — by businesses, with support from the state, which creates the infrastructure.