The competitive environment in the banking sector and its development in the regional aspect (Belgorod region example)

A study of the competitive environment in the banking market is currently quite topic, since this sector of economy is one of the agenda priorities of the Government of the Russian Federation. Terms and conditions of the global crisis, and especially its consequences, imposed a significant imprint on the activities of credit organizations, which required a number of activities of the Central Bank of Russia to stabilize and strengthen the banking sector. In this article the authors studied the state and the level of economic competition in the banking market, and by the example of the Belgorod region to identify the need for the policy of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to improve the health of the banking sector, leading to an improvement in the competitive environment. The study determined the degree of saturation of the Russian banking sector credit institutions and the level of competition, confirmed the calculated coefficients Herfindahl–Hirschman. Regional study of the banking market of the Belgorod region, which showed strong competition occurring on the background of a large market capture of six to eight large credit institutions. However, the marked downward trend in the number of banks, which takes place both because of the revocation of licenses by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and because of the reorganization of large diversified banks in their regional offices. The article also traces dynamics of total profit of credit organizations with a clear explanation of the reasons for its turbulent and conditions of withdrawal of liquidity from the banking sector. Consideration of the strengths of the market leaders in the banking sector of the Belgorod region, and an overview of the priorities in their development showed that in the region, in order to survive in the competitive environment and realize their goals, small credit institutions need to adapt to the rules of the game leaders, or to develop their own strategy – a survival strategy in the market arena. The result of this article is based on the findings on the state of competition in the banking sector in Russia and the Belgorod region, allowed to identify new vectors of further development of the subject in order to identify a more accurate number of factors, focus on which will contribute to the efficiency of the business of credit institutions and their degree of competitiveness and optimizes intensifying competitiveness, and as a result, provide a qualitative development of the competitive environment in the region.