Oleg Belay and TRINFICO: A Story of Trust, Responsibility, and Growth
The histories of major companies rarely take shape without the involvement of strong personalities. So it was with the Russian investment group TRINFICO, which entered the market in the early 1990s and soon became a notable player in fiduciary asset management. Behind its rise is the biography of a person who combined a technical education with entrepreneurial talent, an investor’s intuition with executive experience, and strategic vision with an ethical approach. This is Oleg Belay - a senior executive who, since 2013, has led the investment group as its CEO.
An Atmosphere of Progress: Childhood and Youth
The subject of this biographical sketch was born in 1972 in Moscow, then the capital of the Soviet Union. By Belay’s own account, his childhood unfolded in a warm, caring environment. He grew up in an ordinary Soviet family with a modest standard of living.
Yet there was something unusual about his early years. He grew up and studied in Zelenograd, considered the Soviet analog of Silicon Valley. His parents worked in microelectronics and programming. Both were graduates of the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (MIET), which had opened shortly before Oleg’s birth.
This was an era when leading countries were rapidly developing their microelectronics industries, and the USSR was no exception. One of the hubs of this sector was the young city within the Moscow agglomeration where Belay grew up - Zelenograd.
An interesting fact: about half of the city’s residents at that time were young specialists - engineers, programmers, scientists. Many were connected to MIET, located in Zelenograd. These engaged, passionate people formed the Belay family’s circle.
All this naturally influenced the formation of a young personality: the atmosphere of a research cluster, his parents’ example, conversations with inspiring people, respect for knowledge, and talk of cutting-edge technologies. These factors strongly shaped Belay’s character and interests. He grew up enthusiastic and curious, fascinated by new ideas and discoveries, and performed well at school.
At school, Belay showed a clear aptitude for the exact sciences. He handled mathematical formulas with ease and eagerly immersed himself in the laws of physics. He did not neglect the humanities either, taking an interest in history and literature.
This combination of interests fostered interdisciplinary thinking. Psychologists note that this useful skill helps one
● see connections between phenomena,
● find non-trivial solutions,
● adapt to a rapidly changing world.
All of this proved valuable in entrepreneurial and investment activity. Belay saw the benefits of this foundation right after finishing school: a new era was beginning before his eyes - the era of a market economy and entrepreneurship.
A Turbulent Era of Change
At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the country where young Belay lived underwent rapid transformation. With the collapse of the USSR, fifteen new states appeared on the world map, including the Russian Federation, which began a new chapter in its history. In this new Russia, running a business and conducting currency operations were no longer prosecuted as in the Soviet era. On the contrary, space opened up for entrepreneurship and investment. Private banks, exchanges, and joint-stock companies emerged.
At this time Belay was a student at the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology. Like his parents, he chose MIET out of interest in advanced areas of the electronics industry. He earned a degree as an engineer-physicist, but by the time he graduated he already understood that he would work in a very different field - finance.
As TRINFICO’s CEO recalls, his student years were intense. He took a keen interest in the opportunities opening up. Thus he not only studied but also began probing a path into business. He admits that not everything worked out - there were difficulties and mistakes - but he kept experimenting, searched for his own path, and ultimately found his calling on the stock market.
In 1992, vouchers appeared - a special type of security issued by the Russian government during the transition to a market economy. Through this instrument, factories, plants, and other state assets were transferred into private hands. Every citizen received a voucher, but most did not know what to do with it and simply sold it. A spontaneous market for these securities emerged, where Belay gained his first trading experience.
His early successes in trading securities inspired him. Together with friends - fellow students equally passionate about finance - he decided to register a brokerage company. Thus, in April 1993, TRINFICO entered the investment market, founded by Oleg Belay and his partners.
Forward-Looking Thinking and a Strategic Approach
The first years are difficult for any business, and for TRINFICO’s young founders the challenge was compounded by the fact that they operated in an emerging market. Alongside classic shares, various temporary financial instruments were in circulation: the vouchers mentioned above, treasury obligations for government–enterprise offsets, short-term government bonds to finance the budget, instruments to cover the USSR’s foreign-currency debts, and more.
The young financiers had to design mechanisms for working with these nonstandard instruments to solve clients’ problems. They actively participated in consolidating share packages of large enterprises and in other processes shaping Russia’s nascent economy. At the same time, TRINFICO kept a long horizon in view and adopted instruments already well known in Western markets - for example, derivatives. And in 1997 it was among the first to offer Russian clients asset-management services.
During this period, Belay Oleg Viktorovich served as Chief Financial Officer and was at the center of day-to-day operations. He also actively studied and introduced promising business lines into the company’s work. As the top manager explains, the strategy was built on an evolutionary principle. The company monitored market trends and studied client needs, responding to each market wave with relevant financial instruments and services.
Another crucial aspect of TRINFICO’s work was ethics - both business and human. Entrepreneur Oleg Belay emphasizes that from the very first days the company set high ethical benchmarks.
Thus, in 1994 it became one of the co-founders of NAUFOR, the professional association of stock-market participants. It is worth noting that in the 1990s Russia still lacked adequate legislation to regulate the new economic institutions. The country was only learning to live in a market economy, and many misunderstood this freedom. It was an era of shell companies and financial pyramids. The temptation to make a quick score and let the chips fall where they may was strong.
There were, however, businesspeople able to see beyond the moment who, as a matter of personal conviction, preferred to operate honestly. Among them were TRINFICO’s founders - Oleg Belay and his partners. They held themselves to strong professional standards and, as NAUFOR participants, helped shape a sound investment landscape in Russia.
The bet on serious, responsible business proved right. The names of fly-by-night firms are long forgotten, while TRINFICO has operated for more than thirty years and enjoys the trust of institutional clients.
Integrity, Responsibility, Ethics
In 1997, TRINFICO entered the asset-management market and became a management company. This was an important strategic decision that elevated the investment group to a new stage of development. It opened the opportunity to
● work with institutional clients,
● execute truly large-scale transactions,
● manage assets measured in billions,
● create closed-end mutual funds and launch open-end funds,
● introduce services such as investment banking, private equity, wealth management, and real estate.
Asset management also entails a new level of responsibility. A management company is accountable not only for its own money but for clients’ funds as well. Reputation and client trust become the company’s key assets. This is a business oriented toward the long term.
A telling indicator of TRINFICO’s reputation is this: throughout the 2000s it brought 26 pension funds into its client pool - more than any other management company in Russia. Pension funds, by the nature of their activities and under legal constraints, are required to choose only the most reliable managers.
Environmental, Social, Governance - The New Business Norm
The choice in favor of ethical standards naturally led TRINFICO to adopt ESG practices. In 2020, it received an ESG rating - the first among Russian asset-management firms. By that time, Oleg Belay was already heading the consolidated investment group as CEO, a position he assumed in 2013.
The head of TRINFICO has repeatedly emphasized - both in interviews and at seminars dedicated to sustainable development - that ESG has become a permanent part of the group’s strategy. This is reflected in
● issuer selection when forming portfolios,
● people management,
● environmental responsibility,
● support for social projects,
● every element of corporate culture.
In particular, the team supports the Together We Can charitable foundation and actively participates in its work. Focused on combating poverty, the foundation was initiated by Oleg Belay, but over time it has become a shared cause for the entire team.
The summer of 2025 was something of a milestone for TRINFICO. The company held its fifth corporate seminar on sustainable development, and the foundation ran its fifth grants competition for nonprofits. Notably, employees of the investment group selected the organizations that received funding.
Such active staff involvement in the social agenda is an important indicator of corporate cohesion. Social projects, business decisions, and every other aspect of TRINFICO’s development are not only part of Oleg Belay’s personal success story but also the collective achievement of the entire team.
The CEO has often told journalists that the company’s main asset is its people. The core of the team has been with TRINFICO since the business was founded. Experience and trust are the key values the team has carried through the years, Belay says.
