Nominee and Escrow Accounts in Cashless Transactions

The development of cashless transactions in Russia speaks in favour of maximization of their share in total transactions in the foreseeable future. In this context, the paper studies the course of the banking system evolution and factors affecting banks' policy on organizing cashless transactions. The authors justify their viewpoint on the nature of banks' functioning as participants of cashless transactions and identify key features and possible competitive advantages in this field. The paper examines nominee and escrow accounts as new banking products in the sphere of cashless transactions and proves that the use of these types of accounts can significantly improve cash flow security. As a result, the paper presents a comparative analysis of the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of nominee and escrow accounts, and determines their strengths and weaknesses compared to letter of credit as a well-known method of reducing risks in transactions.