According to the CEO of TRINFICO, Oleg Belay, business success is based on adapting to modern business development strategies. This man, who runs one of the largest investment groups in Russia, is known to adhere to the most advanced management and business methods. For example, Belay is a strong supporter of ESG integration. The top manager cares about the future of the planet and humanity, and balances socially responsible business practices with his personal philanthropic activities.

Career Beginnings of the Future CEO

The history of the investment group led by Oleg Viktorovich Belj begins in 1993. In that year, he became one of its co-founders. He and his partners were very young at the time; for example, Belay himself was 21 years old. So, what can we say about the personality of this entrepreneur?

The future businessman was born in the city of Zelenograd in 1972. He was the eldest of three children in an ordinary, yet very educated, Soviet family. His parents were electronics engineers whose circle of friends consisted of similarly educated people. Having warm memories of his childhood and upbringing, the top manager says, "Family is what shapes our values."

The boy had many role models growing up — he was surrounded by people who were passionate about advanced technology and science. And although he eventually ended up working in finance, he still applied the same philosophy of searching for advanced solutions in his business career.

But the future investor did not start in finance right away. In 1987, he began his student life at MIET (Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology). Belay was supposed to become a physics engineer with a major in microelectronics; he was interested in the latest achievements in the computer industry and programming. And although he did not become an engineer, his education turned out to be very useful in the financial markets. Everything, from a good knowledge of mathematics and being good with computers (a rare skill at the time), to analytical skills, information visualization, and critical thinking, came in handy.

So how did a young man who chose to study physics and mathematics end up becoming a financier? The truth is that his university years coincided with a major turning point in the history of the country. Shortly after he had become a student, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Thus began the history of capitalist Russia. The emerging business opportunities and prospects excited and inspired the MIET student. He had a particular interest in the complex and mysterious mechanisms of the stock market, which reflected both momentary price movements and global economic trends.

Commerce was uncharted territory for Russians, and investment was an even more foreign concept to them. Information was scarce and not many business books had been translated into Russian yet. And these were the conditions, in which Belay, together with his peers, began trading securities. They started with privatization checks — peculiar securities of the country's transition period — and then switched to shares, bonds, and more complex financial instruments such as derivatives. Their success was made possible because they knew how to learn from their mistakes and how to analyze data and discover patterns.

In 1993, the brokerage firm TRINFICO was opened in Russia. And so, Oleg Belay's biography entered a new stage.

Among the Pioneers

Having become a co-founder and shareholder of TRINFICO, Belay assumed the responsibilities of Chief Financial Officer. In 2008, he switched his managerial position and began overseeing corporate finance activities of the company. And since 2013, he has been running the business as CEO (Chief Executive Officer).

Throughout this time, he was responsible for developing new business niches, analyzing their prospects, and putting them to use. TRINFICO gained a reputation as a company that was always one of the first — and sometimes the very first — in Russia to pick up on the most important market and socioeconomic trends. And this was a major part of its success.

Here are some examples:

• 1995. The team begins to offer asset management services. It is a timely decision, as this period in Russia marks the emergence of private wealth, while the asset management market remains undersupplied.
• 2008-2013. The company begins to create mutual funds and attract investments for the goals of its clients.

• 2015-2025. The company receives a "green" ESG rating. It launches the Wealth division offering personalized family wealth management solutions for high-net-worth individuals. The group also begins to move towards democratization, issuing open-end mutual funds and listing them on a financial platform since 2024.

Some of the mentioned milestones deserve a special attention.

Expert Skills at the Heart of Asset Management

TRINFIСO operated as a brokerage firm only for a couple of years, and then it continued as an asset management company. It became one of the first AMCs in the Russian Federation and, as such, it is considered today one of the oldest in the country.

As the company moved forward, it gradually expanded its service offerings. The new services included:

• Professional management of funds, real estate, and assets in the stock market.
• Assets structuring and restructuring.
• Open-end and closed-end funds.
• Private family investment funds and personalized wealth strategies within the wealth management program.
• Services for attracting investors, including through corporate bonds.
• Crisis management solutions.
• Brokerage services (licensed activities as a registered securities market participant). Securities depository services.

When it comes to building portfolios, the group's investment specialists continuously monitor the market and select assets with the best potential to achieve a perfect balance between profitability and reliability. They develop personalized wealth management strategies, providing high-quality expertise and carefully analyzing their clients' goals and objectives. The quality of the services is annually confirmed by leading rating agencies, which consistently assign high reliability scores to the company.

Professional Solutions Are Becoming More Accessible

The TRINFICO team specializes in developing institutional-level programs aimed at solving complex professional tasks and achieving tactical or long-term strategic goals. The group offers unique structured financial products based on balanced, highly-liquid, profitable, and at the same time reliable securities. Such structured products are customized to suit the goals and objectives of a specific client. These include, for example, personal investment funds created for individuals and families on confidential terms.

However, there are also open-end mutual funds among the products of the investment brand; these are accessible to anyone who wishes to invest in them. The group's open-end funds have been on the stock exchange for a long time, and in 2024, they became available to a wider audience as they appeared on a popular financial marketplace called Finuslugi. The mutual funds listed on this platform included Russian Yield Bonds, World Yield Bonds, and TRINFICO Capitalist.

And once again TRINFICO was among the market pioneers who picked up on an important socioeconomic trend. It became one of the first asset management companies to list open-end mutual funds on the Finuslugi platform.

Financial experts describe the portfolios of these mutual funds as well-balanced and note that they effectively combine the parameters of reliability, profitability, and liquidity. For example, Capitalist, which has demonstrated a return of 47.45 percent, is characterized by wide industry diversification, high relevance, and asset liquidity. All this is the result of the work of experienced portfolio managers, whose high level of expertise was noted by the National Rating Agency (NRA).

Previously, the complex investment solutions of these professionals were mostly aimed at increasing the capital of institutional investors and boosting the wealth of high-net-worth clients. Now, almost anyone can benefit from the work of the TRINFICO team to achieve their financial goals.

Strategic Opportunities of Green Investing

One of the most important decisions of the top manager in recent years was to incorporate ESG factors into the business processes of the investment group. TRINFICO managed to become the first asset management company in the Russian Federation to focus on the concept of corporate environmental and social responsibility. By now, green investing has become a mainstream practice — at least in developed countries — but at the time when the AMC first began to implement environmental and social ESG initiatives, many people were skeptical about green investing. Few expected this segment to grow exponentially within a short period of time.

Having received an ESG rating (and being the first Russian asset management company to achieve this), TRINFICO continues to maintain it at a high level. In 2024, the National Rating Agency once again affirmed the company's composite rating at 'A.esg', noting its compliance to all three ESG components:

• The E component (Environmental) was achieved through a high number of green investments in the company's portfolios and through the successful performance of the TRINFICO ECOFINANCE fund. Experts also pointed to efficient waste management in the workplace and a 4 percent reduction in energy consumption.
• The Social (S) component took into account the AMC's charity activities, the gender balance in its top management positions, as well as good employee support and motivation practices.
• The compliance with the G component was proven by the company's effective corporate governance practices based on a long-term strategy and sustainable development goals. The agency's experts report that the company employs a good risk management system and efficient internal auditing practices; they also note its responsible attitude towards asset protection and information security.

Such deep ESG focus is a reflection of the top manager's personal beliefs. Entrepreneur Oleg Belay, has always placed a high value on the social responsibility of his business. He likes to say that one needs to stay human no matter the circumstances. In his personal life, the businessman contributes to charity, and when in the office, he explores modern business methods and promotes the philosophy of corporate social responsibility.