Sber has no alternative to building its own ecosystem. Sberbank CEO German Gref said this in an interview with Reuters. “Sberbank has a relatively small ecosystem compared to our banking business, and we do not see any risks yet,” he said.
Currently, the Central Bank of Russia is developing regulations governing the so-called ecosystems – a term used in the country to describe the bank’s business in the non-banking sector, the purpose of which is to create a one-stop shop for serving its customers.
Sberbank, with $ 448 billion in assets, has spent about $ 2 billion, or 3 percent of its capital, expanding non-core businesses from cybersecurity to online movie theaters and food delivery.
SberCloud, the cloud platform, is one of the growth areas where Sberbank will compete with companies such as Pochta.ru and Yandex. “Only 7 percent of Russian companies are cloud-based … This market will flourish in the next 10 years,” Gref said.
Currently, the Russian e-commerce market is undersaturated compared to China and the United States. This market has grown markedly during the quarantine period due to COVID-19 – everything from food delivery to online shopping and movie theaters has gained massive popularity, and this process is expected to only accelerate. “We want to benefit from our presence in fast-growing sectors, and it would be strange not to give such a chance to our shareholders,” said the head of Sberbank.
Since Sberbank strives to ensure that in ten years its share accounted for 60 percent of revenue, the regulator is developing rules to protect depositors from potential risks. Sberbank and the Central Bank are actively discussing the proposed new regulation, but there are no concrete proposals yet, Gref said.