The article describes one of the main tools of green financing — the green loan. This is a loan designed for environmental projects related to agriculture, renewable energy sources, environmentally friendly industry, etc. The tasks are to analyze the current research on this topic, to study the regulatory aspects of green lending, its main types, impact on the bank economic indicators, advantages and disadvantages. The analysis of the current research has shown insufficient development of the idea of the green loan. It is only the theoretical aspect of its influence on the bank activities that has been defined, not its practical effect. The authors studied the green loan impact on the results of the bank activities on the example of overdue loans. For the analysis, they used the panel data of 10 out of 24 largest banks in China in 2012–2017. The evaluation is based on a random effects model. The calculations have been done by means of the generalized least-squares method in MSEXCEL. It has been revealed that green loans in the loan portfolio of the bank contribute to the overdue loans decrease. It has been determined that the main factors influencing the decision making by the borrower and the lender are reputation, public, equity and regulatory pressure, alternative capital pools, credit profiles, availability, capital requirements. However, there is no standard credit documentation for the green loan today. To make this financial tool efficient and sound, it is necessary to further develop regulations, to change approaches to disclosing information on sustainability issues in the non-financial part of annual reporting. The authors have made a conclusion about the rapid development and expansion of the green loan due to the flexible conditions for its provision and availability.

Achieving the goals of sustainable development and the transition to a green economy requires significant financial resources. Banks are active participants in the financing of projects and industries with a positive environmental and social impact. In this regard, the emerging responsible banking and its regulation are of scientific and practical interest, which ensures the relevance of the study. The aim of the study is to generalize and systematize the results of scientific research on the participation of banks in financing the green economy. In the context of the historical approach, the authors apply the methods of critical analysis, logical generalization, systematization, and grouping. The research is based on scientific publications by Russian and foreign authors. As a result, the authors substantiated the correlation of the concepts “green”,“sustainable”,“responsible” bank, and identified that such green financial instruments as green bonds, in some countries — green loans, green deposits, green leasing, and green insurance are being introduced into banking practices. Responsible banking is regulated using monetary and macroprudential policy instruments; in some countries, incentive-based regulation of responsible banking is mandatory. The authors concluded that responsible banking is moving towards the transformation of classic products and services into environmentally and socially oriented ones, accompanied by the transformation of business processes, management culture, and the content of banking policy. Responsible banking contributes to ensuring financial stability, but the regulator needs to use macroprudential tools to timely identify a green credit bubble, including through climate and environmental stress testing. Prospects for further research are aimed at assessing the impact of green financial instruments on the bank’s performance, the role of responsible banking in achieving sustainable development goals, at finding the most effective monetary and macroprudential tools to stimulate responsible banking and ensure financial stability.

The introduction of Big Data technology into banking activities is aimed at improving the efficiency of banks, improving business processes, however, it creates new risk factors and determines the need to transform regulatory approaches. The purpose of the article is to develop recommendations on the use of Big Data technology in banking, including the bank transactions using a financial platform, taking into account the need to ensure the stability of the banking sector at the macro and micro levels, and the development of the financial market. It has been established that Big Data technology is used in the management of banking risks, in the development of relationships with customers, the development of personalized products; in cost reduction. The use of Big Data defines new requirements for staff competencies. As a result of the analysis, the need for cooperation between banks, operators of financial platforms with specialized providers of cloud services, software, as well as fintech companies is substantiated. It was revealed that the implementation of Big Data technology increases the importance of model, reputational risks, third-party risks, unethical behavior, and cybersecurity. When using Big Data technology, banks are recommended to separate the data management function; the regulator — to expand the regulatory principles and approaches to the use of data in the construction, validation, adjustment of banking models based on Big Data technology, to the exchange of data and their protection, to the use by banks, operators of financial platforms of Open data, to the certification of specialized suppliers, interacting with banks; the legislator is recommended to develop a legal framework that regulates the formation and use of open data by economic agents.

Household incomes, their level and dynamics are one of the factors that ensure the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, stable development of the banking sector, which is impossible without steady earnings, determines economic growth, which also positively affects reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. The paper examines the impact of household income on the return on assets of the banking sector in Russia using annual time series from 2003 to 2019. The study was conducted using formalized economic and mathematical methods of analysis by linear regression with least squares tests on the significance of the model, with tests for redundancy of insignificant variables (Wald test), Ramsey test on the functionality of the model, White and Breusch Pagan test for heteroscedasticity (heterogeneity of observations) and multicollinearity by method of inflation factors, graphic method. The Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model was used. The results show that (1) an increase in the growth rate of household income and deposits in the non-financial sector has a positive effect on the return on assets of the banking sector; (2) an increase in the growth rate of the price of Brent crude oil and non-performing loans negatively affect the dependent variable; and (3) the regions that have the greatest (positive and negative) impact on profitability of whole bank sector in Russia were identified. Increasing household incomes and eliminating inequality in the incomes of the population of different regions will have a positive impact not only on social well-being but will also provide the banking sector with the opportunity for profitable operation and create conditions for sustainable growth. Our conclusions are useful for the regulator and individual banks and can be taken into account when developing and implementing policies aimed at sustainable development.

The object of the study is the inclusion of banking services for making payments in the context of consumers using the Internet, mobile subscriber devices. The subject of the study is the factors and approaches to assessing digital financial inclusion for consumers of payment services provided by the banking sector. The relevance of the study is due to the need to increase financial inclusion in the context of ensuring financial stability, economic growth, prosperity and equal opportunities for all members of society, which is determined by domestic strategic priorities, as well as a global sustainable agenda, in the context of the development of digital technologies. The purpose of the study is to identify factors associated with increasing the inclusion of financial services for Russian consumers in the context of the development of digital technologies, using the example of payment services provided by the banking sector. Methods of generalization, grouping, statistical and comparative analyzes were used in the study. As a result, factors associated with the digital inclusion of payment services provided by the banking sector to consumers were identified, including the share of the population that are active Internet users in the total population; the number of divisions of operating credit institutions per 1 million adults, and population density. It is concluded that the development of digital literacy of consumers will contribute to the increase in digital financial inclusion, for which it is advisable for the state, the regulator and the financial market participant to form a need among consumers and provide the opportunity to develop digital skills to receive and ensure security when receiving financial services. Further research can be focused on individual components of digital financial inclusion, various groups of counterparties, certain financial services, certain types of financial institutions, including operators of financial and investment platforms, as well as on the effects and risks of the micro and macro levels.