Development of regional commercial banks in digital economy: risks and opportunities

The article is devoted to the analysis of the activity of regional commercial banks. The purpose of this article is to identify risks and prospects for the development of regional commercial banks in the digital economy. The author explores the concept of a regional bank, analyzes the peculiarities of the activities of regional banks in modern conditions of increasing banking competition. The article analyzes the state and trends of the development of the banking regional sector from the point of view of efficiency increase of their activities. It is shown that the number of regional banks is constantly declining, and a number of constituent entities of the Russian Federation do not have any longer in the structure of their regional banking system banking credit organizations chartered in their territory as a legal entity. The authors concluded that the development of regional banks can be efficient onlythrough the qualitative growth of each individual regional bank, since in quantitative terms this sector of the Russian banking systems will onlydecrease. As an example the activity of Rostov bank Tsent-Invest and the regional bank of the Republic of Tatarstan Ak Bars Bank are shown, which occupied certain niches in the Russian banking system and fully compete with foreign banks. To identify and assess the current risks of the activity of regional banks specific characteristics of the digital transformation of the banking industryare determined. As the main risks of development, the authors identified the following ones: risk of increased banking competition, on the one hand, and the risk of monopolization of the banking market, on the other; risk of underfunding of financial technologies; information risks and cyber risks; risks of insufficient financial literacy of consumers of banking products and services; risks of customer base reduction. As opportunities for the development of regional banks the use of remote banking services, allowing to attract new customers, expansion of participation in the state programs, emergence of opportunities for the introduction and development of new business models, in particular ESG-banking are identified. The Bank of Russia can provide certain support for the development of regional banks in the context of digital transformation and increasing banking competition by creating and developing nationwide banking infrastructure platforms.