All news

Sberbank’s CEO names Google, Amazon bank’s competitors

According to Herman Gref, the year 2018 will be a watershed for those biggest world companies, and their interests to financial services would be evident
Sberbank CEO Herman Gref Dmitry Serebryakov/TASS
Sberbank CEO Herman Gref
© Dmitry Serebryakov/TASS

SKOLKOVO, December 16. /TASS/. CEO of Russia’s top lender Sberbank, Herman Gref, named Google and Amazon the bank’s competitors due to the interest those companies have to financial services.

"It is not the issue that we shall be competing with them, the issue is - they are competing already," he said at the ceremony of opening the bank’s Skolkovo data processing center on Saturday. "We suppose that within coming years they will fully access our platform. We should be equally equipped with technologies, as they are. Next year already, we shall see various financial organizations of those technology giants."

According to Gref, the year 2018 will be a watershed for those biggest world companies, and their interests to financial services would be evident.

"Step after step, they would be entering the financial industry; this is an evident scenario, though as yet they refute it. <…> If banks are unable to compete with them, they will win the competition," Sberbank’s CEO said. "Thus, our strategy would be not to defend, but to attack.".