New realities of social development dictate the need to transform established business models into a modern format. This trend has not bypassed the banking sector: a number of credit institutions have outlined a further strategy for their development within the framework of an ecosystem model of doing business, with varying degrees of participation of banks in the activities of such platforms noted.The work examines the main controversial issues about the essence of ecosystems, as well as the prerequisites for their formation in the national financial market, identifies the reasons for the transition of banks from a traditional business model to an ecosystem one, defines specific criteria for classifying organizations as an ecosystem, and identifies the features of the functioning of the largest national ecosystems built with direct participation of Russian commercial banks, their comparative characteristics were made. It is concluded that the transformation of the traditional banking business model into an ecosystem one opens up new opportunities for credit institutions for growth and development.