Bank of Russia Financial Congress 2026 Officially Opened
St. Petersburg once again welcomes participants of the Bank of Russia Financial Congress. Over the next three days, leading representatives of the financial sector, the regulator, business community and academia will discuss the prospects for the development of the economy and the financial system.
From 1 to 3 July, the Congress venues — BKZ Oktyabrsky and the New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theatre — will host 24 sessions covering the development of the financial market, financial technologies, payment infrastructure, financial stability and other key issues shaping the future of the Russian economy. International delegations and speakers from Egypt, India and China will also take part in the Congress.
As is tradition, the Congress will open with a plenary session featuring Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia. The discussion will focus on the conditions for sustainable long-term economic growth, the outlook for monetary policy and the resilience of the Russian economy. The discussion will also feature Vladimir Verkhoshinsky, Chief Managing Director of Alfa-Bank; Herman Gref, President and Chairman of the Executive Board of Sber; Andrey Kostin, President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank; and Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. The session will be moderated by Elina Tikhonova, Head of Investment Programmes at RBC.
One of the key events of the opening day will be an open dialogue between Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, and Sanjay Malhotra, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
The second plenary session will focus on the transformation of the financial market, technological development, the emergence of new market participants and financial instruments, as well as approaches to financial market regulation. The discussion will feature Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Market; Nikolay Zhuravlev, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Maksim Gritskevich, Chairman of the Management Board of Bank DOM.RF; Alexander Kraynov, Director of AI Technologies Development at Yandex; Vyacheslav Tsyganov, Executive Director of T-Bank; Sergey Shvetsov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Moscow Exchange; and Denis Shulakov, First Vice President of Gazprombank. The session will be moderated by Vladimir Chistyukhin, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia.
News, photographs and live broadcasts of the business programme sessions will be available on the Congress website.
In 2026, the Congress’s General Partners are Alfa-Bank, VTB Bank, Gazprombank, Bank DOM.RF, Moscow Exchange, Sber and T-Bank. Official Partners are WB Bank, the Mir Payment System, the Faster Payments System (FPS), Ozon Bank, OTP Bank, PSB Bank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Sovcombank and Tochka Bank. Interfax News Agency and RBC serve as the Congress’s General Media Partners.