Financial Markets: Current Trends and Factors that Determine the Functioning of Financial and Credit Institutions

The article considers topical issues of how financial markets are developing in the new realities of the digital economy and presents the results of research on theoretical and practical aspects of international capital flows, revealing the main advantages of direct investment over the portfolio and other investments, the activities and functions of transnational banks in modern conditions; problems and prospects of using digital technologies in banking practice. The methodology uses scientific abstraction, system and factor analysis, methods of grouping, detailing, and synthesis. The obtained results allowed us to reveal the important role of private equity funds in developing financial and credit institutions, as well as to reveal the tendency of improving the intermediary function of banks on the modern stage of digital technologies’ development.