From the establishment of the Faster Payments System (FPS) on January 28, 2019 to July 1, 2023, Russians made 6.9 billion remittances with more than 32.7 trillion rubles to phone numbers. This was reported to socialbites.ca by the press service of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
To transfer money by phone, you need to go to the bank application, select the option “Fast payment system” and enter the number of the recipient. Then – specify the bank to which you want to send money and confirm the transaction. Funds will be instantly credited to the buyer’s account. You can transfer money to yourself and others via SBP.
According to the organizer, in April-June, one out of every two residents of Russia used transfers by phone number through SBP, and one out of four people used payments for goods and services. According to VTB, today SBP accounts for 80% of all transfers in Russia.
How to transfer money abroad by phone?
According to VTB forecasts, as the service improves, transfers abroad by phone number will become as popular as in Russia.
“Today, five Russian banks offer cross-border transfers via FPS with the participation of their foreign partner banks. Currently, 14 of the three countries are such foreign partners. We do not disclose country names. At the same time, interaction is developing, both between similar payment systems in different countries, and through individual foreign banks.
socialbites.ca, based on the answers to the queries in the top 50 in terms of bank assets and the analysis of their websites, learned that VTB and Tinkoff Bank offer remittance services abroad by telephone number. And MTS-Bank is currently negotiating with 40 partner banks from the CIS to act as an intermediary to Russian banks in cross-border transfers via SBP. As Kirill Palchun, head of MTS Bank’s Money Transfers stream, clarified, the credit institution currently fulfills this role for several credit institutions.
Novikombank and Pochta-Bank will initiate cross-border transfers through SBP in 2023 and Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2024. “Renaissance Loan” will also launch the service, but so far the lender has not announced the timing. Novikombank is currently working on the launch of transfers from abroad to Russia via FPS.
The press service of the Central Bank said, “At the moment, transfers can be made from Russia to abroad using the Fast Payment System, but banks with foreign partners are also working on the possibility of transfers from abroad to Russia.”
The transfer is made according to the same principle as in Russia. It is also better to find out in advance whether there is a partner bank in the recipient’s country and what commissions are provided for transactions. The Central Bank has set a commission at the level of 6 rubles for cross-border transfers via FPS. You can send money abroad by phone number only in rubles, they are converted into local currency next to the receiving bank.
Where can I transfer money
Until now, Russians can transfer money via SBP to a limited number of countries by phone number, and it is better to clarify their list in advance.
“We launched the cross-border transfer service through SBP in March of this year, customers can transfer money to three CIS countries. During this time, the transfer volume exceeded 150 million rubles. In the future, we plan to expand the geography of the service,” said Alexei Khranilov, head of the “Transfers” department of the transactional retail business department at VTB.
The VTB website says that transfers by phone number will currently be available to Armenia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and soon to Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Tinkoff on his website said you can now transfer money to Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by phone number. “socialbites.ca” has now made “Tinkoff” allow you to transfer money to Kazakhstan “Liberty Bank” by phone number. However, Tinkoff has already informed customers that this service will not be available from August 15.
“Banks are keeping their finger on their finger,” a market source told socialbites.ca, explaining that the list of buyer countries could change rapidly in the current geopolitical conditions. Therefore, you need to constantly check the list of available countries and banks to which you can send money, both on the website and in the application of the banks.
“In most cases, the number of banks and countries is not increasing, but decreasing, and this is, of course, due to sanctions,” said Alexei Krichevsky, author of the Economism Telegram channel.
Things to consider when translating
Stanislav Volkov, Managing Director of the NKR rating agency, stated that when transferring abroad through SBP, you always see the name of the recipient, which reduces the risk of erroneous transactions. This possibility is not always available when sending to a card or electronic wallet.
“A significant advantage over transfers via the SWIFT interbank payment system is a higher speed. Technically, the process is organized with minimal involvement of financial institutions from unfriendly countries, especially international payment systems. Now this is a significant plus, because it is less likely to interfere with operations, ”added the expert.
Ekaterina Semerikova, a leading researcher at the Blockchain and Fintech Lab of the Skolkovo School of Management, noted that a partner bank may refuse to make a transfer if it comes under secondary sanctions.
Timur Aitov, Chairman of the Financial Security Commission of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, pointed out that it is not clear who will be investigated in the cross-border transfer plan via FPS. events that occur – for example, fraudsters seizing a payment.
There is no answer to the question, is it our Ministry of Internal Affairs or, for example, should a similar department of Armenia do this? Or should they work together? What to do if the security forces of one side cannot go to another country?” stressed the expert.
According to him, it is also not yet clear what the customer should do if the transfer is blocked or lost.
Aitov noted another risk – the high volatility of the ruble. According to the expert, the client may lose some of the money on currency conversion during the transfer.