BANK CLUSTER: CONSEPT AND SPECIFIC FEATURES

The modernization within the system of banking sector highlights the importance of the issues related to the system’s entry into a new level of development making banking institutions to set the tasks of the provision of credit and mortgage services availability for the population. Although, specified requirements cannot be implemented without banking cluster, which allows creating favorable conditions for the functioning of banking institutions offering lower interest rates for the loans to the population. This phenomenon attracts the studies of Russian and foreign scientists, however, the scientists still use various definitions of the concepts used. In connection with the above stated, the issue of the necessity of the detailed study of this activity arises.

The paper covers the study of the definition of the “banking cluster” concept. The authors carried out the theoretical study of the existing definitions of banking cluster showing that the relatively small number of works cover the study of this concept definition, and that the concept of “banking cluster” is absent in the Russian legislation today, and that different opinions are spoken out about its essence, the peculiarities of its denotation and the definitions of its content-related characteristics. At the same time, the complexity, the fragmentation of banking cluster definitions take place and it hinders the formation of the clear understanding of this phenomenon.

The paper highlights three basic characteristics of this concept, such as economic potential, political potential, and banking infrastructure. The authors considered functional features of the proposed characteristics that reveal the ways of optimal application of their opportunities in banking activity and carried out the decryption of three basic characteristics, each of them is disclosed by three concepts. According to the results of the study, the authors formulated the definition of banking cluster, which is based on the categorical method of two-level triadic decryption of basic concepts. The proposed definition is based on the specific characteristics of the cluster being formed within the banking sector and contributes to the development of the theory of clusters.