Article
Границы рынка и особенности конкуренции на рынках услуг Visa и MasterCard: уроки применения антимонопольного законодательства
The uniform approach to identify the markets like market of payment systems’ services (two-sided markets with network effects) has not been presented yet in the modern economic and law literature. There is also no unique answer to the basic question – how the boundaries of such a market should be identified. This paper describes the features of two-sided markets with network effects, presents a review of cases of foreign antitrust authorities against payment systems, and also the characteristics of market identification in these cases.
The performed analysis allowed drawing a conclusion on the application of the universal rules, similar to those described in The Procedure of competitive situation analysis in the product markets, in the antitrust policy. The procedure of economic analysis in the markets with the special structures can go far beyond the strict rules described in this Procedure and can require using of more instruments.
One of the important trends of payment system development is the process of clearing or netting. Clearing is a method of cashless payment based on the netting of mutual claims and liabilities of legal entities and individuals for goods (services) and securities. The main advantage of using the clearing payment systems is the ability to significantly reduce the number and total amount of payments. This explains the popularity of this type of non-cash settlements in Western Europe and the USA. The purpose of this work is to investigate the efficiency of multilateral clearing (reducing the total amount of payments by the netting) with different types of distribution of payments between settlement participants. First of all, different models of payments between settlement participants were considered in this article. Matrix and graph models are developed and used to describe set of payments. Thus the netting procedure was formalized in the form of a transport-type linear programming problem where the matrix of gross payments was used as the initial data and elements of the matrix of net payments were the required quantities. Then it was developed the different models of payment matrixes. It was demonstrated that an important factor of the clearing is the size of participants (banks), which performs the payment and that total amounts and number of payments depend on the size and capitalization of banks. The analysis also identified the main features of these models for various situations which can be found in actual payment systems. Finally, using the simulation modeling it was investigated the efficiency of the clearing process for various initial matrixes of gross payments, compared the efficiency of the procedures of bilateral and multilateral netting and identified the key factors affecting the efficiency of the multilateral interbank clearing. First, it was shown that the efficiency of multilateral clearing is almost independent of the distribution laws of payments with the same values of mathematical expectation and standard deviation. Second, it was shown that the reduction in payment amounts by the netting is highly dependent on the structure (in particular, on the density) of payment matrixes, that is, on the probability of payments. According to the research it can be concluded that the most important key factor affecting the efficiency of the clearing is the homogeneity of elements of the matrix of gross payments. The results of this work can be useful in developing real-world payment systems based on the netting process.
The article is essentially an analysis of supervision and oversight in the national payment system as the activities of the Bank of Russia. The essence of supervision and oversight in the light of the Draft Federal Law «On the national payment system» and international practice are analyzed. Moreover, for a more detailed consideration of oversight, it is compared with certain measures of banking supervision, such as preventive measures and credit organization curatorship.
In the article key global trends and shifts of recent development in large value payment systems and retail payment systems since the middle of 1980-s are analyzed. The paper shows growth of hybrid payment systems, expansion of multicurrency payment systems, increase in electronic payments, and decline in the use of traditional payment instruments.
Smoking is a problem, bringing signifi cant social and economic costs to Russiansociety. However, ratifi cation of the World health organization Framework conventionon tobacco control makes it possible to improve Russian legislation accordingto the international standards. So, I describe some measures that should be taken bythe Russian authorities in the nearest future, and I examine their effi ciency. By studyingthe international evidence I analyze the impact of the smoke-free areas, advertisementand sponsorship bans, tax increases, etc. on the prevalence of smoking, cigaretteconsumption and some other indicators. I also investigate the obstacles confrontingthe Russian authorities when they introduce new policy measures and the public attitudetowards these measures. I conclude that there is a number of easy-to-implementanti-smoking activities that need no fi nancial resources but only a political will.
One of the most important indicators of company's success is the increase of its value. The article investigates traditional methods of company's value assessment and the evidence that the application of these methods is incorrect in the new stage of economy. So it is necessary to create a new method of valuation based on the new main sources of company's success that is its intellectual capital.