Cybercrime as a Key Operational Risk of the Payment and Settlement Infrastructure of the Global Financial System and Approaches to Its Regulation in the Eurasian Economic Union

Abstract

One of the key areas in the formation of a single financial market within the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter, EAEU or Union) is the development of a single payment space (SPS) of the Union. In the context of growth and transformation of the risks of the payment and settlement infrastructure (PSI) of the global financial system (GFS) (sanctions, systemic, operational and other risks), the problem of effectively neutralizing their impact on the PSI of the EAEU countries is highly topical. The article clarifies the conceptual apparatus associated with the transformation of risks for the PSI of the GFS, and carries out their systematization. Sources of operational risk of the GFS’s PSI, including the threat of an increase in cybercrime, are analyzed. The authors assert that the main type of operational risk for the PSI of the GFS in the future will evidently be cyberattacks using trojans, ransomware viruses and phishing, as well as blocking user access to Internet sites using DDoS attacks. Nowadays, the number of DDoS attacks in Russia has been growing for several years in a row, and this growth may intensify in 2021 due to a number of factors set out in the article. It is indicated that, in Russia and other EAEU countries, growth in cybercrime is one of the main threats to the stable functioning of the national PSI as well as credit and financial systems in general. In this regard, the article substantiates the need to develop regional cooperation on cybersecurity issues within the EAEU using the experience of the European Union, where this issue is paid very serious attention. Besides, it is advisable to build up international cooperation between the countries of the world within the UN in order to enhance the cybersecurity of the GFS’s PSI and ensure the successful development of the SPS in the EAEU.

Financial Stability in Companies with High ESG Scores: Evidence from North America Using the Ohlson O-Score

“…In order to expand the literature on the topic of a high-ESG-performance corporation's financial stability, this article aims to expand the methods used to predict the firm's probability of bankruptcy. Ohlson's O-score aims to improve upon previous models of evaluating a company's probability of defaulting in the next two years [51][52][53][54][55]. The use of the Ohlson O-score is explained by the abundance of analysis using the Altman Z-score.…”