Transformation of the Investment and Savings Behavior of the Population in the Context of Digitalization and the Challenges of the Pandemic

The subject of the study is the transformation of the savings and investment behavior of retail customers of the financial and banking sector during its digital restructuring.

The relevance of this task is determined by the significant level of penetration of financial technologies into the Russian economy, which have radically changed consumer preferences and customer experience.

The purpose of the work is to analyze the specific historical conditions of the development of the financial market and retail investment instruments, to identify the specifics of the savings and investment behavior of Russians in the period from 2005 to the present. It was found that in the conditions of the current crisis caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the preference of Russians for liquidity was clearly manifested, they preferred to transfer savings into the most liquid form (cash, demand accounts) during the period of high uncertainty factors. However, the effects of digitalization — the development of remote channels of interaction, low costs of entering the market, simple and quick access to services have pushed those with savings to actively search for alternative and more profitable investment opportunities. It has been revealed that the investment and investment savings products available on the market do not currently show the required profitability, on the contrary, under unfavorable circumstances, investors can get even lower returns than when investing in traditional assets (bank deposits).

It is concluded that a series of successive crises in 2008, 2014 and 2020 did not allow real disposable incomes to fully recover, the savings and investment potential of the population remained weakened all this time, as a result of which the household sector does not have any significant “safety cushion” in case of unforeseen situations and deterioration of the financial situation.

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