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The number of classical banks in the world has reduced. In the majority of countries the number of banks does not exceed 200. The uniqueness of the Russian banking sector is that in this respect it takes the third place in the world after the USA and Germany. The paper reviews the conclusions of the economic theory about the optimum structure of the banking market. The empirical analysis shows that the number of banks in a country is influenced by the size of its territory, population number and GDP per capita. Our econometric estimate is that the equilibrium number of banks in Russia should be in a range of 180-220 units.

In 2019 the doctrine, called “Modern Monetary Theory” (MMT), broke into the political Olympus. Political, academic and financial circles in the USA, the United Kingdom and Australia are actively discussing what was previously unthinkable: the budget deficit does not matter, the money printing is able to close the gap between government spending and taxes without inflation pressuring and other well-known ideas presented in a new light. The strict criticism of MMT was voiced by the economists of all kinds, from Kenneth Rogoff and Lawrence Summers from Harvard University to Paul Krugman from the City University of New York. All of them claim that under the mask of a new theory simple left populism is hidden. Representatives of MMT believe that when their supporters win in the upcoming elections in the USA, they will open a new page in the history of economics and politics.

In the last few decades exchange rate economics has seen a number of important developments, with substantial contributions to both the theory and the empirics of exchange rate determination. This article presents a survey of exchange rate models from classical purchasing power parity to new open economy macroeconomics. Significant attention is given to five directions of analysis: goods market approach, optimum currency area theory, monetarist's approach, new developments into the open economy macroeconomic theory, and several empiric models of exchange rate.

Russian government has prepared the package of measures to help the country’s financial system maintain financial stability. The paper discusses the state measures and formulates the propositions of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP). The most important ones include coordination of regulators, unsecured refinancing and refinancing of external debts, guarantees of interbank loans, budget deposits in banks. The author analyzes subordinated loans for Russian banks from the state budget, nationalization of several banks and the future of government intervention in the stock market. Special attention is paid to the Deposit Insurance, the development of national credit rating system and the official information policy. The author believes that state measures need the following fine-tuning.