(Photo : Ilya Filatov)

Ilya Filatov: Education, career, and fintech projects

Name: Ilya Filatov · Ilya Valentinovich Filatov · Ilya V Filatov · Filatov Ilya · Filatov I.V. · Илья Филатов · Илья Валентинович Филатов · Филатов Илья · Филатов Илья Валентинович · Филатов И.В. · Ilja Valentinovitsj Filatov · Ilja Filatov · Filatov Ilja · Filatov Ilja Valentinovitsj · ايليا فالنتينوفيتش فيلاتوف · イリヤ・ヴァレンティノヴィッチ・フィラトフ · 伊利亚·瓦连廷诺维奇·菲拉托夫

A financial expert, investor, and top executive. Ilya Filatov has extensive experience in the banking industry. He is currently involved in fintech project development and venture investing. 

Filatov Ilya Valentinovich: Early years and education

The top executive was born in the city of Klin in the capital region. Ilya Filatov was an energetic child, and his parents decided to place him in a specialized sports club. At the age of 7, he was admitted to the Olympic Reserve School where he took up swimming. By the age of 14, Filatov Ilya Valentinovich became a Candidate Master of Sports. Filatov said that it was during this time that he found himself at a fork in the road, contemplating whether to pursue a sports career or develop skills as a professional elsewhere. In the end, he decided to dedicate his life to the sea and enrolled in the Academy of Water Transport.

The early 1990s were marked by economic and industrial turmoil that also affected the transportation sector. Ilya Filatov, whose biography could have been tied to the sea, changed his priorities, and in his third year, he applied for a transfer to the Faculty of Economics. He graduated from university in 1998 majoring in economics and management.

11 years later, Filatov Ilya also received an MBA degree. In 2009, he completed a course in financial management.

Ilya Filatov: Early career

Ilya Filatov, whose biography is exemplary in terms of building a career in fintech, started working and learning the ropes in business before graduating from university. Filatov Ilya Valentinovich supervised transactions made by individuals and was involved in accounting and card processing. In 1996, he joined Elbim Bank as a lead economist responsible for foreign exchange accounting. Ilya Filatov's subsequent career was closely linked to the financial sector. 

In 1999, a young specialist worked for several months in the foreign exchange department of AKB Center Commercial Bank. Later, Ilya Valentinovich Filatov was employed by Commercial Bank Platina, where he became the head of the plastic card department. This financial institution is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of national online banking. As early as in the late 1990s, the bank where Filatov Ilya Valentinovich was working allowed its clients to manage their accounts and make payments online. Platina was also developing its own payment system, which allowed sellers to receive transactions and helped other financial organizations set up their own online banking frameworks.

Already a seasoned financial expert, Filatov Ilya left Commercial Bank Platina in 2004 to join MKB Bank. He spent a year there as head of the bank card department. This unit played an instrumental role in the bank's operational activities, as the financial institution specialized in providing credit lines to individuals and legal entities. 

Filatov Ilya: Career in Uralsib

In 2005, Ilya Valentinovich Filatov received an offer to take up a senior position at AKB Autobank Nikoil. Later, this credit institution merged with Uralsib Bank, and in the second half of the 2000s, it became an umbrella brand for several financial companies. As a result, the credit institution where Ilya Filatov worked became one of the top 10 banks in the country in terms of net assets. 

At the time, Uralsib was actively investing in advertisement, marketing, development of IT infrastructure, and expansion of its regional presence. These efforts bore fruit: according to a KOMKON study, in 2009 Uralsib ranked among the top five most identifiable banking brands in the country. Ilya Filatov contributed to the development of the bank having worked for nine years in a senior position. In 2014, he left Uralsib Bank and resigned as deputy chair of the board. During his tenure in this position, Ilya Valentinovich Filatov oversaw the retail business and IT departments. His work at Uralsib was highly praised by the bank's management that noted the executive's spectacular achievements in the development of the retail business.

Ilya Valentinovich Filatov in a financial IT entity

In 2014, Ilya Filatov, whose biography has been linked to the banking industry, took the position of first vice president in a financial unit of one of the country's IT giants. A year later, he was promoted to chairman of the board of the financial organization. Under his leadership, the company became one of the most tech-savvy financial institutions in the country and emerged as a strong competitor to the nation's leading banks.

After becoming a top executive in the organization, Filatov Ilya Valentinovich focused on the development of digital financial platforms. The manager believes that the digitalization of services makes it possible to offer the full range of banking products to a larger number of customers without them having to visit branches in person. According to Ilya Filatov, full-featured platform solutions can address inequality in access to financial services. This is especially true when it comes to remote regions where there are fewer bank branches compared to more densely populated areas. The development of such platforms comes across as a universal solution seeking to bring financial services to people living in remote and sparsely populated areas, where the construction of a branch is not economically viable.

Ilya Filatov has experience in rolling out such unique platform solutions as he has contributed to creating a financial system that supports the web portal of the capital's government. According to Filatov Ilya Valentinovich, the implementation of this solution has laid a solid foundation for future development, with financial services becoming an integral part of the city's official web portal and its mobile apps. The city residents can now pay utility bills, taxes, make transactions with kindergartens and schools to cover the costs of their children's care and education, and put money on catering cards. 

Ilya Filatov supported the idea of creating a standardized project that could be integrated into the official portal of any other city in the country. This will allow residents to pay for a wide range of services, while local authorities will benefit from increased payment collection rates and web traffic to official web portals. The IT infrastructure headed by Filatov offers similar solutions to the commercial sector. 

Time has shown that betting on the digitalization of the financial sector was the only right choice. Ilya Filatov has on numerous occasions said that the COVID-19 pandemic has set all things straight, globally. Coronavirus has changed the overall mentality; people started to have a greater appreciation for online services, their convenience, and mobility. Filatov Ilya Valentinovich believes that digital consumption has increased. Changes in customer attitudes have affected many business industries, including financial services. According to Filatov, in 2022 about 60% of bank sales were done online, with related mobile apps gaining the most customer traction.

Filatov Ilya: Role in managing major companies

Over the years, Ilya Filatov, whose biography could serve as an example for building a career in top management, has become known as an effective leader. That's why he has been invited to join the boards of various companies on numerous occasions.

In 2019, Filatov Ilya became a board director of Cloud Retail and Cloud Retail Plus, two companies engaged in software development and distribution. One of the key lines of business in these enterprises led by Ilya Valentinovich Filatov was trade automation and sales monitoring. By 2021, Cloud Retail and Cloud Retail Plus emerged as major players in the online checkout market, with the combined number of clients exceeding 50,000 organizations and private entrepreneurs. In 2021, the firms went through a reorganization by merging with one of the most prominent IT companies in the country.

Ilya Filatov: Venture investments

Ilya Filatov, whose biography has been linked to fintech development, is also one of the leading venture investment experts in the country. The financial IT entity led by the top executive has been actively investing in domestic and foreign startups.

When selecting projects, Filatov pays particular attention to growth opportunities and the potential for synergy with other divisions of the parent IT company. This could be exemplified by investments in the company Factorin, which owns a blockchain platform of the same name. This trade financing platform is used by more than 40 financial organizations and more than 1,000 buyers and retailers, including some of the largest retail chains in the country. According to Ilya Filatov, Factorin is the only platform that brings all the benefits of blockchain technology to clients. He also described involvement in efforts to improve the platform as an important step in developing digital products and enhancing the B2B customer experience.

In 2021 alone, the IT giant, where Filatov Ilya serves as a top executive, invested in five large-scale projects that could be integrated into the company's infrastructure. Those include a data management platform that facilitates communication with clients, a messenger-based bank, an education platform, an online consumer service, and an entity developing chips for smart devices and drones.

The investment in the far-reaching projects could be partly attributed to Filatov's nature. The top executive believes that the company's goal is not to create services that are better than those offered by competitors but to provide the client with solutions that are superior in many ways. Filatov's rational ambitions and ability to solve the most difficult tasks have been praised by experts on numerous occasions. At the end of 2018, his efforts were marked by a prestigious prize in retail business, with the manager receiving an award in "The Visionary" category. 

Filatov Ilya and fintech development

Ilya Filatov regards fintech development as one of his priority goals. According to the manager, high-quality and investment-appealing assets are now in great demand. Filatov has on numerous occasions said that the financial entity he leads focuses on digital transformation and retail business. This approach yielded good results, with more than 50% of sales being made through the financial institution's digital channels. Apart from this, the financial entity under the umbrella of the IT giant emerged as one of the fastest-growing creditors in the country. It should be noted that the financial company led by Ilya Valentinovich Filatov became one of the leaders in POS financing.

The active growth of the financial IT entity in the retail sector was fueled by investments in a tech platform. Explaining this dynamic, Ilya Filatov said that an increasing number of people are ready to buy services online. A consolidated platform makes it possible to develop the ecosystem of a large company and offer both proprietary and partner products to a wide audience. Filatov believes that the competition between the main players in the market is currently unfolding not in the realm of prices, but in the domain of customer loyalty. The key factor is how much time a client spends interacting with the company's services.

According to Filatov Ilya, the volume of loans issued, revenue and net profit margin could be increased through the use of artificial intelligence and Big Data. In this case, the synergy with the parent company - which has a lot of data about a customer using different services - plays an enormous role. This information includes telecommunications data, data on the consumption of entertainment content, or data on the customer's domestic and international movements. Filatov says that deep data analysis makes it possible to accurately predict the solvency of a potential borrower and offer him or her a suitable product. Experience has shown that this approach can double the volume of retail lending.

Ilya Filatov has emphasized that the Group's financial entity offers its clients not only a wide range of banking services but also other products and services, including those in the financial sphere. In this way, when clients travel to areas where there is a risk of contracting tick-borne encephalitis, they are automatically offered an appropriate insurance plan.

Filatov: IT solutions for finance and social welfare

As the top executive of a large financial infrastructure within an IT giant, Filatov oversees the development of fintech services. Filatov also supervises a team of developers working on the company's digital ecosystem. The centerpiece of the fintech infrastructure is a mobile app that allows customers to access a wide range of banking services online. 

Other development axes in this area are the improvement of the organization's website, - which acts as a showcase window for financial services, - POS financing services, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), as well as the automation of credit issuance, and the development of services selling insurance plans, etc.

Several projects implemented with the participation of the financial entity led by Ilya Filatov were highly praised by the professional and expert community. In this vein, the above-mentioned Factorin financial platform was bestowed with a prestigious FINAWARD prize. The project won first place in the FINTECH Startup - Rising Star category established by the Skolkovo Foundation. Another project, a smartbank, was ranked among the top 3 in the category Integration of Open API in Banking. Smartbank is a digital office developed on the basis of a mobile banking application that enables users to control funds on their accounts at different banks and check balance on cards issued by other financial institutions. At the same time, Smartbank allows one to make traditional payments, purchase insurance plans, and financial products, and quickly obtain virtual credit cards.

In addition to fintech solutions, the well-developed digital infrastructure of the IT company and the financial entity under Filatov's leadership makes it possible to implement projects of great social importance. This included the installation of monitoring sensors during the reconstruction of an Orthodox cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod Region. This solution was developed by the same team that works on the IT giant's digital ecosystem. The monitoring system makes it possible to control microclimate parameters and respond to changes in a timely manner. This, in turn, helps preserve the unique interior and exterior decoration of the ancient Orthodox church. In 2022 alone, hundreds of such sensors were installed in dozens of socially significant locations, including churches, museums, and libraries.

In addition, the IT company is launching projects that not only benefit the community but could be considered a business in their own right. This could be illustrated by the "Line by Line" project, a digital book service, that is not only a large online library providing access to works by classic and contemporary authors, but also fulfills the functions of a publishing house. This allows the creation of compilations of works written by authors who represent different regions of the country. In this way, the "Line by Line" project helps people get to know their home regions and the art of their fellow countrymen.

Filatov Ilya Valentinovich: Leisure activities

Ilya Valentinovich Filatov has embraced a healthy lifestyle, and exercises constantly to keep himself fit. He also tries to encourage his son to follow his example in jogging and football: together, they ran ten kilometers as part of a marathon in the country's capital. 

As a top executive of the financial IT infrastructure, Filatov also strives to promote sports among his subordinates. In this vein, Filatov Ilya supported the creation of corporate healthy lifestyle projects and spearheaded the push to establish a running club within the company. Its members participate in major running events, including the marathon in the capital, Green Marathon, Autumn Thunder, and many others. Filatov Ilya Valentinovich is also a member of the company's mini-football team, which participates in various amateur competitions.