Russia’s payment system in the new geopolitical and economic conditions: problems and prospect

Taking into account an unprecedented number and quality of packages of external restrictive measures introduced against the financial and real sectors of the Russian economy, the mechanism for ensuring sustainable development of the national economy obviously needs comprehensive adjustment, from the point of view of updating priorities, and from the standpoint of monitoring the level of compliance and adaptation to the emerging challenges. Among the most sensitive restrictions, as envisioned by their initiators, are measures against the Russian financial sector, primarily the payment system and infrastructure. The article presents the results of analyzing the effectiveness of the national payment system in modern conditions. We highlight emerging trends in the activities of payment agents and payment system operators and substantiate promising directions for the development of the national payment infrastructure. The aim of the study is to determine the degree of influence of current challenges and threats on the efficiency and effectiveness of the national payment system. The novelty of the research is associated with the influence of unique external conditions that affect the functioning of the object of research. The set of indicators proposed in the work to assess the effectiveness of the national payment system allows for the system-wide integration of the most important aspects of the changes taking place in the infrastructure of payment systems. The results of the analysis confirm the need for the Bank of Russia to take and implement preventive decisions and introduce infrastructural changes to the operation of the national payment system in the context of escalating external restrictions. The conclusions of the study contain specific measures aimed at improving approaches to determining the effectiveness of the national payment system operators. Our key recommendation is to increase attention to the issues of priority development of payment turnover based on the implementation of innovation technologies and products, comprehensive infrastructure renovation, countering risks and threats in the policy of the Bank of Russia.