German Gref turned out to be a shark

The head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina reprimanded the head of Sberbank for the extreme volumes of absorption of IT-companies.
14.10.2019
Origin source
Sberbank often buys technology companies, instead of building a partnership with them, said the head of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina and asked the head of Sberbank German Gref to explain the bank’s strategy in this matter.

“You said that all major innovations are created by major players. I don’t think everyone in this room will agree with this. Often, initially, innovations are created by small, flexible companies. You introduce them, you make them big, these innovations. And we see from your experience that you often buy such companies, "said Nabiullina, referring to Gref, RIA Novosti reports.

“Many in the market complain that you sweep away all technology companies, include them in your orbit, instead of building partnerships, like many companies do. And this is the principle of openness. That is, these companies remain on the market, they work with other players. You can you explain your strategy, why is it still basically a purchase, rather than building a partnership with technology companies? Why does the partnership model not work? " Nabiullina asked Gref.

The head of Sberbank did not agree with the conclusions of the head of the Central Bank. “This smells a bit like a myth. We buy very little. If you take the pace of acquisition, say, JPMorgan bank, they buy on average, if you take both your venture capital funds and the bank itself, at about the rate of one company per week,” Gref replied.

But Nabiullina interrupted Gref and explained that the question was not in comparison with international companies, but how many independent companies remained in the end on the Russian market. “Even if we compare with large players, for example, Yandex or Mail, we have approximately the same rate of purchase. We do not buy very many companies,” Gref explained.

According to him, there are an order of magnitude more companies with which Sberbank builds partnerships, including within its ecosystem.

“Nevertheless, I believe that the question of who is still the main donor of innovations - large companies or small ones - remains. For us, as a regulator, the task is for innovations to be produced and produced by all large and small players. A competitive environment is very important.” - concluded Nabiullina.

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