MOSCOW, April 26 (Reuters) – Russian state-owned financial institution VTB (VTBR.MM) will launch a digital financial institution throughout the cell messaging app of main social community VKontakte, Russia’s reply to Fb, as Moscow seeks technological options to disrupted banking transfers.
Western suppliers Google Pay and Apple Pay restricted entry to their companies after Russia despatched tens of hundreds of troops into Ukraine in February 2022. That made operations with banks overseas notably difficult as many financial institution playing cards stopped working abroad and Russia was disconnected from world cost techniques.
“VTB is concentrated on growing digital channels and different codecs for servicing purchasers,” deputy president-chairman of VTB’s administration board, Anatoly Pechatnikov, stated at a briefing. “The event of our personal know-how is particularly related within the context of geopolitical dangers and worldwide restrictions.”
The digital financial institution will allow prospects to hold out on a regular basis monetary transactions reminiscent of cash transfers, some invoice funds and cell phone top-ups, throughout the VKontakte app. Purchasers will solely be capable of entry it on cell.
Russia is pushing its Mir cost playing cards, however these are solely accepted in 9 nations.
In the meantime, the Financial institution of Russia has developed a substitute for SWIFT, the System for Switch of Monetary Messages (SPFS), and simplified the best way banks can use its Sooner Funds System (FPS) with international counterparts for cross-border transfers.
On March 1, state communications regulator Roskomnadzor revealed an inventory of international messenger companies, reminiscent of Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord and Microsoft Groups, that had been banned for the supply of monetary companies.
VTB, which had launched banking companies by means of Telegram in January, stated it was ready to close down its financial institution on Telegram as soon as Roskomnadzor had come to a last choice.
“As of at the moment, there was no such choice, so the financial institution in Telegram works, though we’ve got stopped actively selling it.”
Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Modifying by Bernadette Baum
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