The financial services industry is a profitable, but also highly competitive environment. The companies here are trying to provide customers with a more complete and relevant range of services. The options offered by banks are no longer considered exhaustive. A new form of organization is gaining popularity - a financial supermarket. In the article we will analyze what it is, what are its features, what services are provided. We will consider whether there are prospects for the development of such financial forms in Russia.
What is it?
Financial supermarket - a division of a credit, financial organization that offers a full range of financial services and products. Banking comes first. But, besides them, investment, consulting and insurance are available.
The main task of financial supermarkets is to simplify the process of obtaining financial products and services by citizens. The creators also want to make the stay of customers in such organizations as comfortable as possible: reduce waiting time, reduce the amount of cash costs.
Classification
Although financial supermarkets are represented by universal institutions, in world practice, their division into areas of activity is relevant:
- Work with investment products.
- Employment in the insurance industry.
- Retail banking services.
As a rule, separation is carried out according to the prevailing vector of activity of a universal company.
Creation goals
Financial supermarkets are created for certain purposes:
- Get a well-functioning organization, a large corporation that provides financial products.
- Make an exchange of customer bases between the individual activities of such a supermarket.
- Save money by scaling up For example, to reduce the number of jobs with overlapping office functions.
- Minimize the cost of advertising and exploring new market segments. In the case of a financial supermarket, its founder can simultaneously promote several services and products at once.
Occurrence trends
Why did the Tinkoff financial supermarkets and their ilk appear? It's all about global trends:
- Tighter competition among financial institutions. It is especially noticeable in the most profitable segments of the banking business.
- A necessary condition for the survival of financial institutions is their enlargement.
- Simplification of the legislative sphere of many states. In particular, earlier the laws of a considerable number of states prohibited credit institutions from rendering commercial services.
What is happening in the world?
Thus, the financial supermarkets ETP GPB (electronic trading floors of Gazprombank) did not appear by chance, but under the influence of circumstances. Today, banks need to create powerful financial integrated intermediaries that can offer the public a wide range of financial products and services. At the same time, retail entrepreneurship development programs are chosen to reduce interest margins and attract large corporate clients.
Such financial intermediaries try to attract the attention of customers by calling themselves universal financial supermarkets. They are able to offer a comprehensive, individual approach. That is, they increase to maximum sizes the volume of joint sales of banking and non-banking products.
Today, such models of financial organizations are rapidly developing their own retail chains, improving the quality of customer service, expanding the list of services provided, and exploring new areas of activity.
The most developed financial supermarkets function here:
- USA.
- Benelux states.
- Southern Europe.
- Japan.
The main forms of organization
There are also several main forms of appearance and development of such a form of financial organization as a financial supermarket:
- Joint venture. Such an organization consists of a bank, an insurance company and an investment company.
- At the heart of such an institution model is a strategic alliance, a distribution agreement. The bank here will function as a sales channel for any standardized products. MTPL, units of mutual funds and so on can act it.
- The Bank, to a certain extent, is the owner of an investment or insurance organization.
- The bank forms a new insurance company.
- A brand new financial supermarket is being formed. He has the opportunity to offer a wide variety of financial services and financial products under a single brand.
Place in the modern economy
It seems that the financial supermarket is a new evolutionary stage of the banking system. But at the same time, many leading economists believe that such a model is unacceptable in modern conditions of economic development.
The main difficulty of its implementation is associated precisely with the expanded range of services provided. An organization that is also an investment, commercial bank, insurance company, hedge fund, is difficult to manage. It is quite difficult to find a director who can fully manage such diverse vectors, control them.
After the first financial supermarkets were launched, this problem was revealed, the idea of hiring several managers at once appeared - for each of the areas of activity. But at the same time, they should be in the know about each other’s affairs, at general meetings to resolve emerging issues. However, such a scheme is quite inefficient in practice.
The history of the model in the world
This phrase came into use in the 1980s. But the first financial supermarkets appeared in the USA in the 1920s. The first half of the 20th century was unfavorable for this form of organization - American laws forbade credit institutions to combine financial and commercial activities. The restriction was lifted only in 1999.
In Europe, financial credit supermarkets were recognized somewhat earlier - in the 1980s.
The history of the model in the Russian Federation
In Russia, interest in such a model of financial organization appeared in the 1990s. For example, Finam determined this basic form for itself in 1997. In 2002, Uralsib publicly announced the transition to a financial supermarket model. His example was followed by another major domestic bank - VTB.
But still, financial supermarkets in Russia are at the initial stage of their formation. Those forms of financial organizations that exist today in the Russian Federation can be attributed to this model quite conditionally. The fact is that each representative of such a segment understands the term "financial supermarket" quite individually. The following interpretations are common:
- Holding, consisting of diverse financial institutions. They can be management and brokerage firms, banks, private pension funds, insurance companies, etc.
- Agents of several combined companies.
- Individual banks, which are called financial supermarkets due to the fact that they simultaneously provide brokerage services, are managed in trust, provide units of mutual funds according to their own agent schemes.
It is not uncommon for various credit organizations to take such a name for the sake of the "red word", attractive advertising.
So far, there are no financial supermarkets in Kirov, Moscow and other Russian cities, based on the traditional understanding of the word. There are universal banks that can offer a variety of financial products and services.
Organization Benefits
The creation of financial supermarkets results in the following advantages for the founders:
- Sales growth due to the integrated development of retail chains.
- Increase in commission of additional fees.
- Increase customer bases.
For visitors to such organizations, the advantages are as follows:
- A wide range of services and products, a wealth of choice.
- Integrated, individual approach.
- Uniform quality standards for all service vectors.
- Save time and money.
The problem of modern financial supermarkets
The first financial supermarkets in Kirov, Moscow and other cities of Russia are not such in the initial interpretation of this concept.
At first glance, such a model promises only advantages - a diverse range of financial services, quick customer service, saving money and time. But modern Russian financial supermarkets face a whole set of difficulties:
- Distrust of the population. Russian citizens are still suspicious of the possibility of opening a retirement account, taking a loan and insuring their property in one place.
- The activity of such models of financial organizations is appropriate for large federal cities. But with regard to small towns, rural areas, single-industry towns, financial supermarkets will not be relevant soon. The success of such an enterprise largely depends on the income of the population, its ability to acquire such financial products.
- Lack of qualified personnel. Financial supermarkets require personalized service. Accordingly, for each vector, you need to select a qualified specialist, ace in your field. And the areas of knowledge of managers of such organizations should be expanded several times. After all, they need to manage several different areas of activity at once. Hence the consequence - the lack of "quality" employees who are able to provide the necessary level of sales.
- In financial supermarkets in Moscow tend to retrain mainly banks. Such an institution requires large-scale retraining of employees who previously worked only in the banking sector. The same can be said about insurers, employees of investment companies.
- In the Russian Federation, there is no macro-regulator capable of controlling the activities of financial supermarkets. The activities of banks are regulated by the Central Bank, investment institutions by the Federal Service for Financial Activities, and insurers by the Federal Service for Insurance Supervision.
Development Prospects in the Russian Federation
As studies show, not one of the financial supermarkets operating in the territory of the Russian Federation is such in the full sense of the word, in comparison with foreign similar structures.
But there is still a future for the development of this form of financial institutions in Russia. But, experts say, its development will require at least 10 years of investment. Then it will be possible to get financial supermarkets with the maximum range of services for which uniform quality standards apply. The most suitable model for Russia is the union of large banks with significant non-bank intermediaries.
Other experts say financial supermarkets are doomed. And as a form of organization, they will soon exhaust themselves in the West. At the same time, they may not even reach their full development in the Russian Federation.
One way or another, but in certain countries, full-fledged financial supermarkets function today. In Russia, such a model of organization is developed conditionally. The companies that represent it are financial supermarkets only partially.