visitors to Russia switched to instant cross-border transfers – Kommersant

In 2023, visitors from friendly countries have mastered cross-border transfers using a phone number or card. The increase in the number of instant transactions in the currencies of these countries was reported “Vedomosti” in VTB, Tinkoff Bank and MTS Bank.

VTB reported that the share of such transfers in total payments abroad increased from 2% in January 2023 to 78% in December. At Tinkoff, according to its representative, the number of transactions using a phone number or card increased from 26% in the first quarter to 70% in October. The trend towards an increase in the share of instant transfers was confirmed by MTS Bank – classic transfers with cash receipt by first and last name currently account for less than 10%.

The VTB representative also said that Kazakhstan is the leader in terms of the volume of funds transferred to other countries – 29 thousand transactions worth 10.5 billion rubles. The most popular countries for these indicators also included Tajikistan, China, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. At MTS Bank, the number of transactions in national currency amounted to about 20% of 30 million of all transfers. The average bill for one cross-border transfer to VTB in 2023 was about 11 thousand rubles, in MTS Bank – more than 15 thousand rubles.

In June 2023, experts interviewed by Kommersant reported that large Russian banks began to actively develop transfers to friendly countries, gradually increasing their coverage and currencies available for transfer. The transformation of the Russian money transfer market, which began in the spring of 2022, has, in their opinion, assumed relatively stable shape.

More details in the text “Kommersant” “Where does the money go”.

Petr Buzlaev