The Unfolding Clash: Russian Banks vs. E-Commerce Giants Over Customer Discounts

Envision Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase accusing Jeff Bezos of defrauding the U.S. government of billions in taxes by providing discounts to Amazon customers. Then, imagine a letter from Jerome Powell, the Chair of the Federal Reserve, supporting Dimon, which leaks to the media, followed by Bezos retaliating with his own open letter published in The Wall Street Journal.

It may sound complex, but this scenario closely mirrors recent events in Russia.

What started as a specialized policy debate has escalated into a highly publicized conflict between Russia’s leading banks and financial regulators and the nation’s foremost e-commerce platforms over the seemingly trivial issue of discounts.

The controversy ignited in mid-November when German Gref, the prominent CEO of state-owned Sberbank, accused online marketplaces at an industry conference of undermining conventional banking institutions. He argued that these platforms were unfairly incentivizing consumers to use their in-house banking options instead of traditional bank cards by offering discounts.

Major financial institutions, including Sber, VTB, and T-Bank, had already expressed concerns to lawmakers that such discounts were detrimental to fair competition.

Gref amplified the debate by claiming that these discount practices were artificially lowering retail prices, thereby depriving the government of significant tax revenue. He projected a potential loss of 1.5 trillion rubles (approximately $19.4 billion) for the year 2025.

“In essence, the discounts being offered are essentially funded by everyday citizens,” Gref stated, further alleging that e-commerce platforms were capturing market share due to “non-market competitive conditions fostered by the state.”

Gref also insisted, “Online marketplaces are still unregulated in our nation. It is imperative that we establish a proper regulatory framework for them.”

The concept that e-commerce firms in Russia have their own banks may come as a surprise, as many countries enforce laws against such arrangements. A notable exception is China, where Alibaba has launched its own bank, MyBank, through its financial subsidiary, Ant Group.

In Russia, e-commerce platforms ventured into the financial sector around the same time in 2021—not by creating banks from the ground up but by purchasing smaller, existing banks. Consequently, entities like Wildberries Bank, Ozon Bank, and Yandex Bank operate as fully licensed lenders within extensive retail ecosystems today.

The transformation has been rapid. By the end of 2024, e-commerce platforms accounted for 17% of the banking market in terms of active cards and 4.7% of consumer loans, according to market research firm Frank RG. In 2024 alone, the three major marketplace banks issued 57 million cards, although only about half of the users activated them.

Disputes like this one in Russia are not uncommon when non-bank entities begin to offer services similar to those of banks, notes economist Nick Trickett, who specializes in Russia.

“This situation is relatively common within antitrust and competition law,” Trickett explained to The Moscow Times. “There’s also the issue of how to regulate platforms that essentially function as banking institutions while lacking deposit insurance.”

In the U.S., for example, airlines can collaborate with banks but cannot own them. Conversely, in Russia, these platforms possess fully licensed financial institutions, which leads to markedly different levels of control, integration, and risk.

Trickett suggests that by framing discounts as a loss of tax income, Gref might be attempting to “tap into patriotic sentiments” as the Russian government seeks methods to increase revenue amid declining oil and gas profits and rising military expenditures.

“He would likely gain sympathetic attention by doing this, potentially receiving support from regulators and even the presidential administration if it becomes a concern for them,” Trickett added.

While Gref’s remarks unsettled the sector, tensions with e-commerce platforms escalated dramatically days later when a letter from Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina to Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov leaked to the media.

In the correspondence, Nabiullina aligned with the banks and urged the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service to prohibit marketplace discounts linked to their banking products and even suggested banning these platforms from promoting their financial services on their own websites.

Ozon refuted the allegations, asserting that it had already discussed providing equal access to loyalty programs with banks and was actively engaging with over a dozen lenders to standardize these offerings.

The Association of E-Commerce Companies, a lobby group representing Wildberries, Ozon, and Yandex.Market, argued that banks have been employing card-linked cash-back schemes in their ecosystems for years without facing similar scrutiny.

Government ministries seemed hesitant to take a side following the leak of Nabiullina’s letter.

The Economic Development Ministry informed Kommersant that it was examining her suggestions, but emphasized that existing laws governing Russia’s platform economy allow for regulation of marketplace pricing. Any new measures would require thorough assessment to avoid negatively affecting sellers, consumers, or the digital economy.

The Anti-Monopoly Service echoed a cautious stance.

“The largest platforms are already subject to competition law regulation,” said the agency’s deputy head, Adilya Vyaseleva, noting that practices like differentiated pricing and ecosystem cashbacks “are not explicitly banned.”

Trickett asserts that beneath this public dispute lies a deeper structural conflict.

“Banks are frustrated by their lack of monopoly power, particularly state banks that seek to solidify their roles as primary authorities controlling credit flow,” he remarked.

Following the leak of Nabiullina’s proposals, Tatiana Kim, the billionaire founder of Wildberries and Russia’s wealthiest woman, published an open letter in Kommersant directed at the Central Bank, parliament, and the government, in which she accused banks of attempting to eliminate competition under the pretense of tax issues.

Kim claimed that Russia’s largest banks earned 24 times more than e-commerce banking in the first ten months of 2025 while simultaneously investing heavily in their own loyalty programs.

“Sber alone allocated about 790 billion rubles on non-banking assets in 2024, mostly for loyalty initiatives,” Kim asserted, arguing that traditional banks’ motivations are driven less by fairness and more by a desire to maintain commission income and not have to offer their own discounts to customers making purchases on e-commerce platforms.

Some analysts have pointed out weaknesses in her comparisons. Semyon Novoprudsky, a business commentator at BFM, noted that Kim compared profits from marketplace banking to overall bank profits—a flawed comparison, as banking comprises only a minor aspect of marketplace revenue.

Nonetheless, like Trickett, Novoprudsky contends that the contention reflects a more profound struggle.

With card issuance limits decreasing and demand for credit waning in Russia, traditional banks remain highly profitable but increasingly anxious about the ambitions of marketplaces to evolve into comprehensive ecosystems, a role that banks themselves have cultivated over the last decade.

“The Central Bank governs trade but not marketplace banks. The government oversees trade but not banking,” Novoprudsky pointed out. “These government entities will ultimately need to reach an agreement.”

For banks, analysts suggest the concern may not be that marketplaces own banks, but that the platforms possess a data advantage that traditional lenders lack.

“Marketplaces can precisely customize discounts for each user because they understand customer behavior,” Oleg Abelev, head of analytics at Rikom-Trust, commented. “Conventional banks lack this capability.”

Meanwhile, marketplaces could be preparing for a potential crackdown.

Analysts predict that if the government prohibits discounts linked to banking services, platforms may simply pivot toward expanding subscription models like Ozon Premium, which offer perks such as free shipping, rewards, and in-platform currencies.

As officials contemplate their options in the ongoing debate, this public altercation highlights a significant breakdown in communication between Russia’s business sector and its regulators, Trickett observed.

“There is a tradition of major businesses becoming so frustrated and feeling unsure of whom to contact, that they essentially panic,” he explained to The Moscow Times. “Additionally, e-commerce platforms have not been strategically crucial to the Kremlin.”

Kim’s letter implies that companies “struggle to find appropriate channels to convey their concerns because no one is truly available to listen,” he stated. “The feedback mechanisms that perhaps worked a decade ago are now ineffective. They simply don’t function anymore.”