Yours sincerely,

Alex Grizov, Publisher & PLUS team

According to the Bank of Russia, on December 28, 2009, the number of the credit organisations involved in bank card issuing and acquiring – has totaled 706, which includes 670 issuers and 636 acquirers.

According to the poll held by Obschestvennoe Mnenie Foundation (“Public Opinion” Foundation), as of autumn of 2009 in Russia there were 42 million Internet users (36% of adults in the country). The core Internet audience – the daily audience – totals almost 24 million users, or about every fifth Russian adult (21%).

Russian postal bank can be created within 5 years. During this time all 42,000 Russian Post offices should be re-equipped as bank offices to render financial services.

On the eve of New Year's holidays the National Agency for Financial Studies (NAFS) has submitted the results of its poll of Russians concerning banks’ New Year actions.

By the end of 2009 the number of members of B2B–Center  uniform system of electronic trade has totaled 37,800 companies.

Electronic provision of all state services must be ensured by 2015, in accordance with the Information Society Development Strategy, the President said in his opening remarks at the meeting.

Central Russian bank of Sberbank of Russia has offered its customers a new service – to repay credits by mobile phone, sending an SMS. The exact sum will be charged off the customer's bank card account.

Check–points  of the new airport complex in Sochi in February of 2010 will be in the test mode, but from March – in full operation.

On December 25, 2009, the Board of Directors of the Bank of Russia has made the decision to decrease the official bank rate and interest rates on some operations of the Central Bank since December 28, 2009 by 0.25 per cent.

Dmitry Borodai analyst of Phoenix Capital investment company (Kiev, Ukraine), expects the share of problem credits to increase in portfolios of Ukrainian banks from 8.8% in November of 2009, up to 9.5–9.7% in December.

In December, 2009, Credit Bank of Moscow (CBM) has established the 200th ATM.

By December 23, 2009, more than a million customers of Sberbank of Russia have concluded universal banking service contracts (UBSC). This technology is implemented in 15 Sberbank’s territorial banks (9,330 branches).

Dengi@Mail.Ru Internet payments system has offered its users an option to fill up the account by bank cards of the most widespread payment systems. Within the terms of the special action during the next two weeks the commission will be 0%. Usually it raises 1.5% fees from every payment.

Reuters reports that the U.K. Payments Council has placed a resting date on the kingdom's use of checks, calling an end to a payment method that has been widely used in the United Kingdom for the last 300 years.

NXP announced the availability of its ARM Cortex-M0 based LPC1100 microcontroller family from distributors in December. NXP’s LPC1100 is the lowest-priced 32-bit MCU solution in the market, bringing higher value and ease of use than existing 8/16-bit microcontroller through unprecedented performance, simplicity, low power, and more importantly, dramatic reductions in code size for all 8/16-bit applications.

Sberbank of Russia has announced the tender among insurance companies for cooperation in the private insurance of bank’s customers. The bank would like to offer its clients new kinds of insurance, including insurance of deposits on the sum over 700,000 roubles, i.e. exceeding the deposit sum guaranteed by the State with accordance to the Federal Act № 177 “On the private deposit insurance in banks of the Russian Federation”.

According to the National Bank of the Republic of Dagestan (NBRD), as of the beginning of the forth quarter of 2009, 36 organizations have exchanged payment messages with NBRD electronically, including 21 credit organizations, 12 branches of banks from other regions, and also Administration of the Federal Treasury, regional branch of the Russian Pension Fund, regional office of the Social Security Fund of Russia for the Republic of Dagestan.

IntellectMoney discount-payment system has declared the start of the mobile version of its web site – m.intellectmoney.ru.

Sberbank of Russia, Experian Company and Interfax Group has announced the foundation of the united credit bureau.

According to the information published in The Bank of Russia Bulletin (№73 (1164)), on July 1, 2010, the Central Bank of Russia will introduce new money transfer tariffs.
Money transfer tariffs (not online) will be raised by 30–40% on the average.

The volume of cash transactions on ArCa cards in thу processing network of Areximbank – Gazprombank Group (Yerevan, Armenia) has been increased in November, 2009, by 13.5% as against of October, and the number of cash transactions – by 10%.

BNP Paribas Bank (Russia) introduces new packages of banking services for students and the youth – “Smart” and “Smart Plus”.

The total volume of Tatfondbank’s card issue has exceeded the level of 300,000. Tatfondbank is the only Principal Member of MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. payment systems in the Republic of Tatarstan.

According to analytical department of WebCreds Group, Russians intend to spend about 30 billion roubles in Internet on the New Year celebration.

Bank of Khanty–Mansiysk has started working with merchants on American Express cards acquiring services.

According to ArmInfo, in 2010 Armenian pensioners will get an opportunity to receive their pensions both onto card accounts, and in banks’ offices throughout the country, the Head of State Human Services Agency of Armenia  Vazgen Khachikyan reported.

Bank Koltso Urala (Yekaterinburg) has introduced its new service for corporate clients – “Remote banking on the run”.

By the end of 2010, Sberbank of Russia intends to increase the issue of credit cards from 400,000 up to 3 million.

Primorye Bank (Vladivostok) has increased the number of points of acceptance of customs payments.

Citibank has published the third annual research on dynamics of the basic categories of purchases, Russians made by credit cards and the forecast for December, 2009. According to Citibank’s estimations, the beginning of Russian economic recovery in the third quarter of 2009 will have an effect on New Year expenses of Russians in 2009 in total.

Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia has issued more than 16,000 credit cards. According to Bank experts’ estimation, by the end of 2009 the number of customers – credit card holders will reach 20,000 people.

Four leading mobile network operators in Russia have made a decision to start a scientific research “Development of proposals on launch and realization of mass NFC services in the mobile networks of the Russian Federation” that should end up in a rollout of the NFC Test Zone in Russia. This initiative was taken by the Board of Infocommunication Union (ICU) on December 3, 2009.

By spring of 2010, Russian Post will equip each operating cash desk in all branches across the country with a postal cashier terminal.

On December, 9th, 2009, at its plenary session the State Duma of the Russian Federation has approved in the first reading the bill, introducing additional restrictions for banks to change some conditions of credit contracts with private customers unilaterally.

There were more than 450 million mobile Internet users worldwide in 2009, a number that is expected to more than double by the end of 2013.

Tieto has provided consulting services for China Mobile's online application store called Mobile Market.

According to Nikolay Melnikov, Deputy Head of the Federal Tax Service (FTS), FTS has suggested Sberbank of Russia to provide its customers with a “service of instant payment of taxes”. As he said, the bank could receive the information on due taxes of its customers who had concluded the agreement on automatic paying taxes off from the account.

According to the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB), during January-November of 2009, private deposits in rouble and foreign currency have increased by more than 4.4 trillion Belarus roubles ($2 billion), or by 33.2 %.

As Denis Bugrov, Senior Vice–President of Sberbank, said on the conference call with mass–media on this Tuesday, that Sberbank intended to double the number of ATMs by 2015.

According to the Bank of Russia, in the third quarter of 2009, the volume of private cross-border operations, made via money transfer systems and Russian Post from Russia, has totaled $3.085 billion, and from abroad to Russia – $461 million.

Now Russian citizens can get the information, whether they have tax due or not. Everyone can do it on his “Private page of the taxpayer“ on the website of the Federal Tax Service (FTS).

From the beginning of 2008 till October, 2009, the number of Internet shops registered in Yekaterinburg, has increased by 6 times, up to 300 shops, and only during 2008 their total turnover has totaled about $20 million.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Senteo have presented its third study of the Russian retail banking industry, ”Customer Experience Index – 2009: How Russian retail banks overcome the financial storm?”

On December 7, 2009, Sberbank of Russia has informed about the end of the creative competition “Your design of Sberbank Visa card for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games“.

Till December 31, 2009, AmEx traveller's cheques can be bought in some of regional branches of Sberbank at par value.

The governmental experiment on uniting the student ID card and the payment card, held in Ukraine will be finished at the end of 2010.

Department for Radio Electronics Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia has held a meeting which is called “Results and prospects of electronic components base developing and manufacturing in Russia” at Mikron factory, the head part of SITRONICS Microelectronics business division.

During November of 2009, 500,000 payments on the sum of 1 billion roubles have been made via information-payment terminals of Northern Bank of Sberbank of Russia.

"А1 Aggregator", Internet payments operator, (А1А) and WebMoney payment system have started developing a platform to enable mobile subscribers to fill up their WM-purses by SMS payments. This service will be accessible in all WebMoney services and programs.

Royal Bank of Scotland (Russia), a member of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, has joined United Settlement System (USS), which acts as a financial settlements center for the АТМ network and cash offices located across all Russia.

VTB Bank (Kiev, Ukraine) has concluded agreements with Rodovid Bank, Kreschatik Bank and Universal Bank about uniting ATM networks and suggesting cash withdrawal service under preferential rates.

In October, 2009, PricewaterhouseCoopers in October, 2009 has hold an online-research, having questioned more than 2,000 respondents in 11 Russian cities with over million inhabitants, to discover the basic trends in the consumer behaviour of Internet users.

As of October 1, 2009, Navoiysk branch of Uzpromstroybank (Uzbekistan) has issued more than 51,240 cards.

On December 2, 2009, Dmitry Medvedev, the President of the Russian Federation, has signed the Federal Act “On modification of the Federal Act “On activity of payment agents in accepting private payments” and the Federal Act “On modification of some particular enactments of the Russian Federation in connection with acceptance of the Federal Act “On activity of payment agents in accepting private payments.”

All settlements on foreign currency credit cards, issued by Ukrainian banks, can be stopped at any moment.

According to the Bank of Russia, on December 1, 2009, the number of the credit organisations involved in bank card issuing and acquiring – has totaled 708, which includes 673 issuers and 638 acquirers.

Bashkirov & Partners research company has hold a poll to found out, how confidence level of Russians to the banking system has changed.

The volume of deposits, attracted by Armenian banks, was increased by 35.6% during  January – October of 2009, but was reduced by 1.7% for October, up to 631.7 billion drams ($1.6 billion). Deposits in drams took a 28.1% share (177.7 billion drams or $460 million), and deposits in currency – 71.9% (454 billion drams or $1.2 billion).

Avangard Bank has started issuing MasterCard Metro cards with no annual service fee for the first year.

The greatest part of all bank cards, issued on the market of Armenia, are salary cards, which percentage of non-cash operations, made in merchants, is rather insignificant. According to Beniamin Tadevosyan, Head of IT and Automation department of Ameriabank (Yerevan, Armenia), cardholders simply are not motivated to pay by cards for goods and services.

During the first 10 months of 2009, Creditprombank (Kiev, Ukraine) has implemented more than 440 salary projects.

Andrey Sobolev has become the representative of Russian Europay Members’ Association in the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) which the Association joined at the end of September, 2009.

PrivatBank (Kiev, Ukraine) together with the Kharkov underground starts issuing Social cards. The Social card has a chip and serves as payment card and an underground ticket.

Sberbank of Russia holds “Good reputation” action, within terms of which all private customers, who had insignificant delay on their credits or restructured them, are given one more chance to take advantage of bank’s credit products.

From December 1, 2009, TransCreditBank has started a consumer credit program – “Reliable partner”. This new program will give all private bank customers an opportunity to get credit ease, if they have positive credit history in the bank.

Chelindbank (Chelyabinsk) has started issuing Visa Platinum and Visa Infinite cards of premium-class.

The Retail Finance Journal has announced the results of its Annual Bank client service rating. VTB24 has taken the lead of this rating, Alfa Bank and Raiffeisenbank have got silver and bronze awards, respectively.

On November 17, 2009, Credit Bank of Moscow (CBM) has extended the limits on operations via CBM online banking system. All customers, even those who have already concluded contracts, have the limit – 100,000 roubles per day, set "by default".

MoneyGram International and Poste Italiane, a postal services operator in Italy, have entered an agreement to enable Poste Italiane customers to make mobile and online money transfers to various markets worldwide.

American Express has joined forces with First National Merchant Solutions, a provider of payment processing services for credit, debit and other payment types, to provide small businesses wanting to accept American Express Cards with a new processing option.

The number of “Mobile bank’ service users in Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia has exceeded 1 million persons.

According to Anatoly Golubchenko, Chairman of working group on developing of the complex mechanism of social protection of population, First Deputy Head of the Kiev city administration, at the end of 2009 every socially unprotected Kiev inhabitant would receive the Social card of Kiev inhabitant.

On November 20, 2009, the State Duma of the Russian Federation has approved the bill of modification of the Federal Act “On the personal data” (excluding a requirement to use cryptographic protection facilities for the personal data and extending the term within which the information personal data systems created before it should be adjusted in accordance with the requirements of the Act) in the first reading.

According to Timur Lakhonin, Chief of the National central bureau of the Interpol (NCB of the Interpol) under the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation, the Ministry is ready to co-operate with the Europol in such spheres as counteraction to illegally acquired assets laundering and combating payment card fraud.

From November, 2009,all MasterCard cardholders have got an opportunity to fill up their accounts not only in roubles, but also in US dollarsand euros via any Master Bank’s ATM with cash-in function.

In October, 2009, Bank24.ru has fixed a new record – 4,800 private bank customers have got Visa cards, that is by 70% as much as the previous month.

According to the Bank of Russia, during the third quarter of 2009, the volume of private bank cards issued has been reduced by 19,300 pieces – up to 121.359 million cards (as of October 1).

During October of 2009, the total volume of ArCa card transactions in VTB Bank processing network (Armenia) has grown by 11.3%, and the number of transactions – by 4.3%.

SITRONICS declares that NIIME and Mikron», the head part of SITRONICS Microelectronics business division, has won the tender for delivery of own-produced contactless transport tickets (RFID) for all kinds of ground transport of St.-Petersburg.

According to Arthur Parfenchikov, Director of the Federal Bailiff Service (FBS), in Russia special terminals will be established, which help the debtor not only to pay out his debts, but also to get info about his debts online.

Anatoly Aksakov, President of Association of Regional Banks of Russia, has introduced the amendment in the Criminal Code, called to protect the turnover of bank cards in Russia from swindlers, in the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

For the third quarter of 2009, Portmone.com Interbank system (Ukraine) has demonstrated intensively growing turn in its network and the number of service providers, joined the system.

MasterCard today announced the availability of M/Chip Advance. This powerful payment platform takes traditional debit, credit and prepaid chip cards to the next level by advancing payment functionality, facilitating deployment of contactless applications and integrating information needed for business applications such as transit and loyalty.

Now My Bank’s customers can open a Visa Gold credit card. The card has the maximum credit limit up to 100,000 roubles (3,000 US dollars/euros), a 50-days grace period and no service fees.

Inekobank (Yerevan, Armenia) has provided its customers with CONTACT system service of receiving and sending money transfers.

West–Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia has started issuing credit cards with a 50-days grace period. Cards are issued for constant customers.

Unibank was the first in Armenia to present this kind of service. The internet-bank system gives an opportunity to its clients to manage their bank account without visiting the bank.

Alfa bank, MasterCard Worldwide and M.Video declared the issue of the co-branding card.

Universal Bank and VTB Bank (Kiev, Ukraine) have united their ATM networks.

As Ivan Pischik, Chief of Central Department of IT of National bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) declared on the plenary session of the International forum on banking information technologies, e-cash was not widespread in the republic yet. 

MasterCard today announced the introduction of the MasterCard Mobile Payments Gateway, a mobile payments processing platform that enables financial institutions and mobile network operators to deliver end-to-end mobile payments solutions through the MasterCard Worldwide Network.

South-Western Bank of Sberbank of Russia has issued more than 1,900,000 cards.

Azericard processing center (Azerbaijan) will provide an opportunity to make online payments by American Express cards.

Credit Bank of Moscow (CBM) has cancelled fees for crediting accounts of employees of the companies which have concluded the contract with bank within the terms of the Salary project program from November 9 till December 31, 2009.

DnB NOR, Norway’s largest bank and a leader in mobile financial services, announced its plan to launch a mobile payment services trial for its MasterCard cardholders.

US financial services technology provider Fiserv is planning to launch a new personal payments service that aims to enable individuals to send or receive money person-to-person using their existing online banking accounts.

Sberbank of Russia has summarized its work on the card market for the first 9 months of 2009. Under the current data as of October 1 it has issued 36.3 million cards, having increased for the 9 months of 2009 by 19.2%.

Rosbank has started issuing credit cards with the grace period up to 62 calendar days. It is the most long grace period of credit cards in the Russian market.

The volume of private remittances from abroad to Moldova via banks of commerce in January – September, 2009 has totaled $845.71 million, that is by $416.68 million (33%) as less as in the same period of 2008.

Master Bank has expanded its list of services provided for Diners Club cardholders. Now they can fill up their card accounts in any Master Bank’s АТМ with cash-in function.

On November 16, 2009, two committies  of Association "Russia"’– the Committee on development of settlement-payment system and the Committee on bank information technology, held a common meeting, devoted to discussion of the bill “On the national payment system”.

On November 11, 2009, Belavia – Belarus airlines company has started selling tickets via its web-site.

Russian government develops amendments to the legislation according to which Russian banks will be obliged to return its clients all money stolen by swindlers from their cards before its blocking, including, by cash withdrawal in ATM.

According to Finance and Administration Director of Byblos Bank Armenia Ike Stepanyan, the bank intends to increase its credit portfolio up to 15 billion drams ($39 million) till the end of 2009, thereby having provided 42% of its annual growth.

The future of monetizing mobile marketing campaigns will be greatly simplified in tandem with the advent of newer, more convenient payment tools for consumers.

According to Michael Smolkin, Head of the North-West Customs of the Russian Border Services Agency, in 2010 they plan to start equipping the largest border entry points of the Northwest federal district, particularly, at the airports of St.-Petersburg, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Petrozavodsk, and also the basic automobile border entry points – Torfyanovka (Russia – Finland) and Brusnichnoye (Russia – Finland), with special facilities for biometric passports control.

According to Ivan Pischik, Chief of Central Department of IT of National bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB), BelCard payment system will start dominating in the country by 2011, when the number of cards issued increase from 1.1 million to 4 million.

Now Department of Human Services of Vologda works on the project of providing all pensioners in Vologda with discount social cards till January, 2010.

MOSOBLBANK has offered its customers the transport card to pay for Moscow underground trips.

Recon Int. Publishing House announces a current issue of its annual bilingual (Russian-English) Directory PLUS–Eurasia Buyers Guide 2009–2010.

Russian President in his Message to the Federal Assembly for the first time has touched upon the issue of bank cards.

On November 11, the State Duma of the Russian Federation has approved in the first reading the bill on 10-year-old period of validity of electronic passports.

Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has launched Convego Air Mobile, a contactless payment sticker conforming to the MasterCard PayPass contactless card standard. On receiving a sticker from their bank, consumers simply affix their Convego sticker to their phone or PDA and can then use it to make payments at any PayPass accepting merchant.

On November 10, 2009, German Gref, Chairman of Sberbank of Russia and Valentina Matvienko, St.-Petersburg governor, signed the agreement on intentions to develop a Social card project, based on the EMV technology, in the city.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., today announced that Gartner, Inc. has placed Check Point in the leaders quadrant in the research company’s recent Magic Quadrant for Mobile Data Protection.

According to the United financial settlements center of MEGABANK (Kharkov, Ukraine), for the first 10 months of 2009, 3,374 Kharkovites have paid for utility services  via Internet, that by 50% as much as in the similar period of last year.

In January – October, 2009, the volume of private deposits in Belarus banks has grown by 29% (in the national currency), and has exceeded 17.1 trillion Belarus roubles ($8 billion).

According to the National bank of Ukraine (NBU), from January till September, 2009, the number of active payment cards (on which at least one operation for a year was made) on the market of the country has reduced by 23% – up to 29.5472 million pieces.

North–Eastern bank of Sberbank of Russia has issued its 300,000th card. If North–Eastern bank issued its 150,000th card only after almost 10 years from the beginning of issuing then it has taken only 3 years to double the volume of cards, issued.

SMScredit.lv Company (Latvia) offers customers interest–free microloans, an application on which can be sent as a SMS, and to get money on the bank account. The amount of a loan is 25, 50 or 100 lats ($50, $100 or $200, respectively). Credit application process takes 15 minutes.

According to Grigory Marchenko, Chairman of National bank of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan can limit foreign participation in banks and financial companies in the country.

On November 6, 2009, the State Duma of the Russian Federation at session has approved the bill providing a possibility to repay a loan, issued for interest, in advance not asking for bank’s permission, in the first reading. Amendments are brought in the second part of 810 article of the Civil code of the Russian Federation.

The volume of issue of cards of South–Western bank of Sberbank of Russia, issued in Krasnodar region, has exceeded 1 million pieces.

Sberbank of Russia has started the 1st stage of the pilot project “DUET technology replacement” to approbate a new technology of EMV standard for United Russian Payment System (URPS).

Armeconombank (Yerevan, Armenia) for the first 9 months of 2009 has increased the number of active cards by 25%, up to 72,056 pieces.

Since summer of 2009 the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation has received from Roskomnadzor, various associations and telecoms operators more than 160 proposals considering the Act “On the personal data”.

The National bank of Ukraine (NBU) urges banks to join more actively the central bank information system – “Borrower Register”.

In accordance with the agreement between VTB Bank (Armenia) and MoneyGram, signed in October, 2009, bank’s customers have had an opportunity to transfer and receive remittances via MoneyGram in any branches of VTB Bank (Armenia), both in US dollar, and in euro.

The Republic of Belarus intends to switch over to biometric passports. It is expected that the first documents with electronic chips will be already issued in 2011.

According to Vsevolod Ivanov, Head of Retail Sales and Service Department of Sberbank of Russia, the volume of active cards, issued by the bank now is 37.5 million pieces.

The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine has prepared the draft of the Decree of the Cabinet of Ukraine “Issues of merchants’ transfer on using special payment devices for making transactions for the sold goods (or rendered services)”.

The number of holders of MasterCard Worldwide and National system of mass electronic payments (NSMEP) cards, issued by IMEXBANK (Odessa, Ukraine), has exceeded 1.5 million.

NIKOIL Bank (Baku, Azerbaijan) has made the decision on a 80% cutting for credit’s penalties and fines rates.

MasterCard Europe today announced its third-quarter 2009 operating results for the Europe region. European consumers continued to use their MasterCard-branded cards during the quarter, with purchase transactions up 5.2% compared to the same period in 2008 – continuing the increased trend toward electronic payments in the region.

On August 6, 2009, Act “On the order of equipment and application of payment terminals for making payments’, developed by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan together with the State Tax Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, has come into force.

Accept Bank (Novosibirsk) has started a new multifunctional service – “Mini-bank in ATM” (“Access Server”) in its own ATM network.

November 2, 2009, X5 Retail Group, the largest retail company in Russia, and Citibank have signed the agreement, that provides issuing co-branding cards.

According to the Bank of Russia, on November 2, 2009, the number of the credit organisations involved in bank card issuing and acquiring – has totaled 709, which includes 672 issuers and 638 acquirers.

NCR to provide at least 1,200 automated teller machines with cash-recycling functionality, the most extensive deployment of cash-recycling ATMs in Europe.

On October 1, 2009, the number of publicly accessible АТМs of Sberbank of Russia has totaled 19,962 machines, as against of 16,360 АТМs on January 1, 2009.

Pivdenniy Bank (Odessa, Ukraine) has completed the certification process of Visa combined cards with magnetic strip and a chip.

According to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), on October 1, 2009, Azerbaijan banks have issued credits on the sum of 7.5 billion manats ($9.5 billion) that is by 150.9 million manats ($189 million) as much as it was on September 1, 2009.

Bank of Khanty-Mansiysk and LUKOIL Company have made the agreement of equipping all LUKOIL gas stations, located throughout Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous region - Jugra, with РОS terminals.

According to Association of Regional Banks of Russia (Association "Russia"), the bank sector is in a rather bad state concerning to new credits issuing. In comparison with June of 2008, now, the number of mortgage applications in banks – members of Association "Russia" – has reduced by more than 7 times.

NCR Corp. today released its third-quarter earnings, and like many businesses this year, the company's revenue and income continued in a downward direction.

MasterCard Worldwide has certificated Bank of Moscow to issue smart cards of Standard, Gold and Business categories. In future Bank of Moscow plans to migrate on EMV technology completely.

OTP Bank is one of the first organizations on the Russian market, which has started accepting Zolotaya Korona and Visa, MasterCard Worldwide, JCB and Diners Club cards by a single POS terminal. The project is delivered by the bank together with INPAS Company and Zolotaya.

As attacks against automated teller machines (ATMs) and customer transaction data become increasingly sophisticated, effectively authenticating all users at the self-service channel is growing more critical by the day for financial institutions.

Mats Odell, Minister for Local Government and Financial Markets is speaking at the inauguration of Swedbank’s new Q-CashRouter (QCR) the 28th of October 11:00 at the Swedbank office on Hamngatan, Stockholm. The machine is a cash recycling machine designed to reduce cost for cash handling and to increase security. At the ceremony, Kjell Hedman, Executive Deputy President and Head of Swedish Banking at Swedbank, will attend together with Leif Lundblad, CEO of BANQIT and inventor of the QCR.

Siberian bank of Sberbank of Russia has solemnly opened its 1000th ATM. The anniversary self-service machine has been installed in Novosibirsk.

Azerbaijan and Turkey are to create their own online money transfer system and propose the Economic Cooperation Organization’s (ECO) member states to join it. At present, the system is being tested.

On October 28, 2009 in Moscow in the head-office of Sberbank of Russia, Igor Lipanov, Head of Retail Products Department gave a briefing.

To expand its smart-card service area Sobinbank upgrades its ATMs and POS-terminals. In October, 2009, Sobinbank has successfully certified in compliance with  EMV standard and has got certificates of conformance in Visa Inc. And MasterCard Worldwide payment systems.

As Leonid Tyukavkin, vice-president on strategy of Tekhnosila Group said, from the beginning of 2010 the Company intends to render remittance services all across Russia and the CIS.

ChronoPay processing company in conjunction with MoneyNews.ru has made a regular quarterly rating “TOP-10 banks which cards are used for payments in RuNet”. The purpose of this rating is to find out banks which customers are the most active card users in the Internet. The rating covers the third quarter of 2009.

Now, PrivatBank (Kiev, Ukraine) is an official partner of Ukash payment system (Great Britain), and its representative in Ukraine.

By this time, BPS BANK (Minsk, Belarus) has issued 1.017 million cards. And it takes the second place in Belarus by this indicator.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Pira International and Pyrabelisk are bringing Security Printing & Alternative Solutions in Central/Eastern Europe & Russia/CIS to the beautiful city of Prague.

Visa Inc., a proud and long-standing worldwide sponsor of the Olympic Games, today announced that it will extend its Olympic Games sponsorship for a period of eight years.

Khanty-Mansiysk Bank has opened an office, which works on essentially new technologies of customer servicing. In a Bank’s office, which is located in the center of Khanty-Mansiysk, there is a zone of 24x7 service with an access by a card. Customers can take all services, provided by an АТМ with a cash-in function, an information kiosk, and in the nearest future even Internet banking service.

Russian Railways (RZHD) considers introducing a loyalty program for its passengers. It studies various options, including a partnership agreement with coalition loyalty programs (Malina, Mnogo.ru, Aeroflot-bonus, Sportmaster, etc.). Besides, it is possible, that it will issue a co-branding product with a bank.

In September, 2009, the number of SIM-cards, registered in Russia, has grown up to 203.7 million. Mobile penetration in Russia in a whole has reached 143.4 %, and in Moscow license zone – 187.4%.

 At present more than 1 million customers of Central Russian bank of Sberbank of Russia use Mobile banking service.

NXP Semiconductors today announced third quarter sales of USD 1,034 million, a comparable increase of 19.2% and a nominal increase of 20.7% from the second quarter of 2009. While the effects of the economic and financial crisis continue to have an impact on the industry, the increase in sales on a sequential basis was visible across all business segments and regions.

Banca Sociala (Kishinev, Moldova) which network totals 55 offices located throughout the country, has joined Zolotaya Korona – Denezhnye perevody system (Golden Crown – Remittances).

From October 21, 2009, VAB Bank (Kiev, Ukraine) has started its loyalty program for regular customers: when a customer prolongs its deposit automatically on a new term the bank adds some interests to the standard rate as a bonus.

Volgo-Vyatsky bank of Sberbank of Russia has provided  NovaCard Company with a one million nonrevolving line of credit in US dollars and within the period of 3 years for purchasing smart card producing equipment.

NXP announced that its SmartMX security chip has been chosen by the Chinese government to power the country’s first ePassport scheme. Utilizing the latest developments in cryptography and security to protect the chip at both hardware and software level, NXP’s portfolio of SmartMX products enables data to be securely stored on the passport, creating an even stronger link between the document and its owner.

Third quarter diluted EPS from continuing operations attributable to common shareholders of $0.54 decreased 27% versus $0.74 last year. Total revenues net of interest expense decreased 16%. Return on average common equity (“ROCE”) was 10.4% and return on average tangible common equity (“ROTCE”), which excludes goodwill and intangibles, was 13.5%.

Smolensk Bank has declared a 1.25% decrease of Sobstvennik (Owner) mortgage program interest rates.

According to the Armenia Credit Reporting Agency (ACRA), Armenian banks’ and loan companies’ volume of lending in the period of January – September, 2009, has reduced by 15.5% as against of the same period of 2008 – up to 398 billion drams ($1.06 billion).

According to the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on regulation and supervision of financial market and financial organizations, bad credits take a 30% share of Kazakhstan banks’ loan portfolio.

UNIStream’s turnover in Republic Tajikistan in the third quarter of  2009 has grown by 29% as against of April – June period of this year, and has totaled $142.8 million.

Obschestvennoe Mnenie Foundation (The “Public Opinion” Foudaition) has published its research, held among e-cash users in Russian Internet and paid services, on which e-cash is the most widespread form of payment.

On October 20, 2009, FIA-BANK (Russia, Togliatti) has issued its first pension National payment system card.

Novosibirsk Municipal Bank has become a Visa Member. It intends to start issuing cards of this payment system in the first quarter of 2010.

Online banking is steadily growing in popularity among Canadians at the expense of other forms of banking, according to Synovate's latest retail banking survey.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, as of October 16, 2009, all banks, participating in the government autocrediting program, have issued within the terms of this program 43,263 preferential autocredits.

Ameriabank (Yerevan, Armenia) has started its Online Ameriabank – corporate Internet banking service.

Sberbank of Russia has started a new credit product – Mortgage refinancing. This product enables individuals, who have mortgage debts, to take advantage of Sberbank’s loan to increase their period of loan or to low their loan interest rate.

Ukrainian Processing Center (UPC) has announced results of the Ukrainian payment card market analysis. According to UPC, from September, 2008 till September, 2009 the card payment turnover in merchants has increased by 30% as against of the similar period of the last year.

Following the results of the third quarter of 2009 the number of cards issued by Ural bank of Sberbank of Russia, has exceeded 3.7 million. The quarter gain has totaled over 233,000 cards.

Home Credit Bank (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) has established new ATMs in Dnepropetrovsk and Dneprodzerzhinsk.

TUT.BY Internet web-portal (Belarus) has introduced a new service. With bank card payments service you can pay for 470 types of services at any time.

Kiev city administration has defined potential investors for the Social card of Kiev inhabitant project, including such companies as Universal information technologies and BМ Bank.

Sberbank of Russia, working with troubled borrowers by itself, intends to invite collection agencies to help in collecting bad debts. The bank has no enough resources of its own to collect bad debts, so it holds tenders for collectors.

Master Bank has started using 3D Secure technology in its MasterCard and Visa cards servicing.

Information Technology Department of Ukrainian Railways has announced its start of payment kiosks introduction.

A joint project of Zolotaya Korona payment system and METRO Cash & Carry on acceptation of the Russian payment system cards in METPO’s centeres in Omsk and Krasnodar.

The number of ATMs, established by West Siberian Commercial Bank (Zapsibkombank) in Tyumen, has reached 100 machines.

German Gref, president and chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia, and Alexander Filipenko, the governor, Chairman of the Government Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – UGRA, have signed Cooperation Agreements on housing construction development, state-private partnership projects and Social and payment card project "Ugra" implementation.

Following the results of the first 9 months of 2009, the credit card portfolio of VTB24 has increased more than 1.6 times, and as of October 1, it has totaled 20.3 billion roubles.

By the results of the poll, research holding Romir held, 48% of Russians have no savings. The other half of Russians (52%) manages to save some money.

As of October 11, 2009, the number of registrations in WebMoney Transfer system has exceeded 9 million.

Rostelecom, a single executor of infrastructure formation works for the electronic government within the terms of the Federal special-purpose program Electronic Russia, has appointed the director of Electronic government program.

Raiffeisenbank is offering clients new life insurance services developed together with Raiffeisen Life Insurance Company — a subsidiary of UNIQA Group Austria.

NOMOS Bank has started its new credit small business product – “Micro-business”. This credit product is aimed at individual businessmen and micro-business owners, providing them with a fast and easy access to credits without any securitisation.

Russian Standard Bank and basketball club UNICS, a leading sports club of the Republic of Tatarstan, concluded an agreement in terms of which the bank has got the status of the title sponsor of the club for 2009-2010 season. 

According to Vozrozhdenie bank, from the beginning of 2009 the volume of card accounts crediting has totaled more than 100 billion roubles. It’s almost 12% as much as at the similar period of 2008.

Zolotaya Korona has opened its new service point in the capital of Mongolia.

A comprehensive Integrated Services solution from Diebold, Incorporated is helping Atlanta's Delta Community Credit Union streamline security management and reduce costs.
The outsourcing agreement makes Diebold the single-source provider for Delta Community Credit Union's access control, credential management and monitoring solutions.

URALSIB Bank and Aeroflot – Russian airlines have signed the partnership agreement on issuing co-branding URALSIB Bank MasterCard cards related to the Aeroflot Bonus program.

On October 9, 2009, Sberbank of Russia has launched a new product “Mortgage standard”, created and implemented in cooperation with the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending.

According to Vasily Khamaza, chairman of the Board of NIKOIL Bank (Baku, Azerbaijan), the bank makes its credit portfolio diversified, and within 2010 it intends to increase 3 times the micro-crediting share.

Mobile penetration in Magadan region reaches 137%. Today each inhabitant of the region accounts for almost 1.5 SIM cards, and the rate still grows.

As of September 2009, users of Yandex.Money Internet payment system make more than 54,000 operations per day.

Central Russian bank of Sberbank of Russia has issued 4 million cards. Two million of them are salary cards for the staff of different companies and organizations. About 1.3 million cards have been issued for pensioners and those, who are supposed to get various social security payments.

On October 7, 2009, Transaero airlines have completely gone over to electronic tickets. And now nor in its own offices nor in its sales agents offices traditional paper air tickets are issued any more.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) recommends banks to establish video surveillance in all structural divisions. It is told in NBU’s letter from October 7, 2009.

Oberthur Technologies, the world's second largest provider of smart card based solutions announces the successful completion of MasterCard CAST certification (Compliance Assessment & Security Testing program) for its Flash memory based payment card.

Bank Koltso Urala (Yekaterinburg) has resumed lending consumer credits to employees of 122 corporate salary project clients.

From October 1, 2009, the joint action of Moscow Bank of Reconstruction and Development (MBRD) and MTS has started in Krasnoyarsk region. Within the terms of the project, as a exclusive joint offer MBRD and MTS intend to issue international payment MTS.Card cards for executives of corporate clients and VIP-clients.

According to Nina Gavrilova, Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatization of Belarus, Belpochta implements systems of remote payment for services with use of mobile and bank cards.

The Bank of Russia has prepared a security card use guide for cardholders, which is published in “The Bulletin of the Bank of Russia”, dated October 7, 2009.

Northern bank of Sberbank of Russia has opened two automated self-service bank mini-offices of 24x7 access in Yaroslavl (in Dzerzhinsky district). Northern bank is the first bank in the system of Sberbank of Russia, which has bought and established such offices.

According to the National Bank of Belarus (NBRB), in January – August, Belarus banks have increased their credit portfolio by 25.4 % and by September 1, 2009, have reached a record level of 63,077 billion Belarus roubles ($29 billion).

Compass Plus is one of the few companies that has been accepted to be compliant with the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS). In accordance to the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) website, only 11% of payment applications have received PA-DSS certification so far.

According to the National Statistics Service of the Republic of Armenia, from January till August, 2009, the volume of credits of Armenian banks increased by 4.8 percent and by September 1, 2009, it nominally totaled 666.4 billion drams ($1.8 billion).

OTP Bank has issued more than 4 million cards, its portfolio of credit cards exceeds 8.3 billion roubles.

At the end of September 2009, Znak Company (Ukraine), a member of EDAPS Consortium, has successfully passed Visa Inc. audit.

According to the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as of September 1, 2009, all banks of the Republic have issued 7.2 million cards, and the number of cardholders has totaled 6.7 million persons. It is 7.5 and 7.7 percent (respectively) as much as at the same period of 2008.

Within the terms of auto credit programs improvement Raiffeisenbank offers its customers the updated conditions: from October 1, 2009, the bank has lowered interest rates for all programs by 4.5 percent.

On October 1, 2009, a first million magnetic stripe BelCard card has been personalized in the Bank processing center (Belarus).

According to the regular report of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), during January – July of 2009, deposits and other private borrowed funds in Russian banks increased almost by 12 percent – from 5.907 trillion to 6.614 trillion roubles.

According to the Department of external and public relations of the Bank of Russia, on September, 28, 2009, the monetary base (narrow definition) equaled 4,026.8 billion roubles against 4,055.4 billion roubles as of September, 21, 2009.

Within the first 9 months of 2009 Pivdenniy Bank (Ukraine) has issued 130,911 cards. Most of them are issued within new salary card projects.

Slogans of the largest Russian banks do not arouse any trust among 30 percent of their potential customers. These are the results of the poll held by Credcard.ru, in which 1006 web-portal visitors have taken part.

From September, 15, 2009, till March, 15, 2010, every MasterCard or Maestro cardholder will be paid back 1 grivna from each 50 grivnas ($9.6), spent in merchants with use of his card.

PayOnline System Company expands its area of activity. In view of growing flow of requests from clients outside of Russia, the management of the processing center made a decision to enter the European market.

Experts of Pivdenniy Bank (Odessa, Ukraine) have developed a special product for the clients – the “Visa gift” card on the basis of the standard payment Visa Prepaid card.

Coming into force of the requirement of the law on obligatory cash register installation into payment terminals is suggested to postpone for one more year.

For the 9 months of 2009, Ukrgazbank (Kiev, Ukraine) has issued about 50,000 payment cards.

“А1: the First alternative content-provider” has announced the results of its research study on SMS payments in the Russian Federation.

Russian Europay Members’ Association, uniting 119 Russian credit organizations – MasterCard payment system members – has announced its joining of PCI Security Standards Council. As a member of the Council the Association will take part in developing PCI DSS data security standards and other payment card–related standards.

Citibank, Miles & More, Lufthansa and MasterCard mark four years of successful cooperation with the launch of the New Ultra Premium Credit Card “Miles & More Ultima MasterCard” for Russia’s affluent frequent flyers. It’s the 1st elite co-brand Credit Card in Europe based on the MasterCard World Signia platform.

Banks will be forbidden to raise rates for issued personal loans unilaterally – on September, 25, 2009, the corresponding bill has been brought in the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

On September, 29, 2009 the board of directors of the Bank of Russia has made a decision to decrease the official bank rate by 0.5 percent to 10 percent since September, 30, 2009.

Against the reduction of number of offices in total, Russian banks open new offices for service VIP–clients servicing. At least 7 large banks have already increased the number of VIP–offices or plans to do it till the end of 2009.

BPC Banking Technologies, a recognized provider of e-payment solutions for the global financial industry, announced that it has signed a contract with VAB Bank, Ukraine, to implement a fully-functional processing center based on the SmartVista Suite of software products. This is yet another of BPC’s large-scale projects in the Ukrainian market.

JSC SITRONICS (SITRONICS or the “Group”) (LSE:SITR), a leading provider of telecommunications, information technology and microelectronic solutions in Russia and the CIS, with a growing presence in other EEMEA emerging markets, today announced that its subsidiary SITRONICS Smart Technologies (SST) has won a tender to deliver Visa and MasterCard chip bank cards during a three year period for Sberbank of Russia, which is the largest bank in Russia and the CIS.

Yarsotsbank (Yaroslavl) is installing special software in its ATMs, which enables to serve Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide cards. After this new software is installed, Promsvyazbank cardholders will be able to use Yarsotsbank ATMs not paying any additional fees for cash withdrawing.

In September, 2009, VUZ BANK (Financial Group Life) has issued cards for students of the Ural State University of Mining..

For the half of the year VAB Bank (Kiev, Ukraine) has raised about 135 million grivnas ($25 million) onto Active Savings payment card accounts.

Topical problems, solving techniques and development prospects.
How to expand client base and to increase sales?

On September, 24, in Petrovsky hall of Moscow AEROSTAR business-hotel the first Russian forum “Russian gas stations and payment technologies 2009” has taken place.

Home Credit and Finance Bank has started offering remittance services without bank account opening via Western Union system.

As  Sergey Ignatyev, head of  the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, declared on September, 9, 2009, private deposits in Russian banks in August, according to preliminary figures, have grown by 1.4 percent (in nominal terms).

From September, 21, 2009 customers of AK BARS Bank can make charitable donations via АТМ. This new service gives a possibility to transfer donations for “Tvori dobro” (“Make good works”) social project within the framework of which seriously ill children are given support and emergency help.

According to the Bank of Russia, as of  September, 22, 2009, 709 credit organizations are bank card issuers and acquirers, 669 organizations are just issuers and 635 – acquirers.

According to the results of the poll, held by the research center of SuperJob.ru, 75 percent of Russians do not believe that the crisis is over. 3,000 respondents from 7 federal districts of Russia have taken part in this poll.

At the formal opening of the project there were Smolensk region governor Sergey Antufyev, URALSIB Bank vice-president Ilya Filatov, Roslavl municipal district head Alexander Ivanov, Pension fund Smolensk region branch head Anatoly Vasilevich.

Raiffeisen Bank Aval (Ukraine) and Visa Inc. have declared about starting a new co–op action – "Transformation" – for corporate card holders. The action is held throughout Ukraine from September, 15, till November, 30, 2009. 

METKOMBANK (Kamensk-Uralsky) has expanded the offer of the remote bank service system METKOM–ONLINE features for individuals. From September, 22, 2009 clients has had the opportunity to make payments into different accounts.

On September, 18, 2009 Moscow hosted the 31th session of the Belarus-Russia Interbank Currency Council (ICC) with the participation of chairman of the National Bank of Belarus (NBRB) Peter Prokopovich, chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Sergey Ignatyev and representatives of central banks of both countries.

Topical problems, solving techniques and development prospects. How to expand client base and to increase sales?

On September, 24, PLUS journal holds the first forum “Russian gas stations and payment technologies 2009”, devoted to the topical problemsof gas station business in Russia, ways of solving them and development prospects of the industry as a whole.

The process of Russian national payment system building will be accelerated and get necessary legal framework until the end of the year. The system is going to be built on the basis of existing Russian payment systems. Thus leading Russian market players, without any guarantee government support, are not ready to become founders of the national payment card system. MasterCard Worldwide payment system, which has declared such a wish, does not suit for political reasons.

Head of Federal Tax Service Michael Mokretsov promises to give the business online-access to business tax accounts. As he said, by the end of 2010 companies and individuals could get a “member area” on the web-site of the Federal Tax Service (FTS). A taxpayer can find there his personal (or business) account chart, with all obligations, and just «to inspect his tax payments”.

Membership Rewards loyalty program celebrates its first year operating in Russia. For each purchase AmEx cardholders are encouraged with points which further can be turned into goods and services of partners. For each 30 roubles spent with a card in Russia or abroad, its holder is charged with 1 point of bonus.

According to Marina Nelyubova, head of card products implementation and terminal network expansion department of Megabank (Ukraine), the bank has implemented electronic student cards at the Rovno University of Water Management and Nature Resources.

According to Petrovsky Bank (the old name - VEFK bank) deputy head for bank cards Sergey Zakharov, within the past months the bank has got constantly increasing card account balances and merchant acquiring turns. In the second quarter of 2009, the account balances have increased by 16 percent – to 856 million roubles.

Ingosstrakh Insurance Company has paid out a benefit to its client – a large Russian bank – under the policy of ATM and cash insurance.

BPC, a recognised provider of e-payment and retail banking solutions, has embarked on a project for SmartVista implementation to modernise the processing center of Banca Transilvania, one of the largest private banks in Romania, which holds a leading position in most of European banking ratings. The BPC solution, selected in the course of an international tender, will be used to replace the existing TP-Gold and TP-CMS solutions provided by IFS (TNS).

Today Asaka Bank (Uzbekistan) has 3 branches and 8 mini-banks in Andizhan region.

UNIStream and Halyk Bank Georgia have started the project of making UNIStream remittances in bank’s branches. Thus, UNIStream services become more accessible to customers in all branches of Halyk Bank Georgia in the Republic. 

The first stage of “Minsk guest card” loyalty discount program, started in Minsk in July, 2009, has come to the end.

According to Deputy Director of the Central Bank regulation calculations Alma Obaeva, the Bank of Russia intends to supervise bank card tariffs.

Rosselkhozbank has concluded more than 2,300 contracts with companies and organizations on salary payment to employees with use of bank cards.

According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), for the period of January-August, 2009, the aggregate income of all Ukrainian banks has totaled 95.7 billion grivnas ($18 billion), thus within August it was 11.5 billion grivnas ($2.2 billion). Their expenses for the 8 months of 2009 have totaled 111.1 billion grivnas ($21 billion), and within August – 13.9 billion grivnas ($2.6 billion). In the structure of expenses 41.6 billion grivnas ($7.9 billion) are allocated to reserve, it takes 37.4 percent of all expenses.

Russian Standard Bank has opened a new premium office "Novoslobodskaya” in Moscow.
It’s the second Russian Standard Bank office in Moscow, which is focused on serving clients, using premium bank products.

From the start of offering the service for railway tickets online booking in Ukraine (from March, 30, till September, 10, 2009) 6,729 tickets on trains of Donetsk Railways have been sold online.

Within one and a half year Rosselkhozbank has issued more than 250,000 payment cards, and from the beginning of the year the number of cards has increased by 3.5 times.

Tatarstan bank, a branch of Volgo-Vyatsky bank of Sberbank of Russia, has established the 500th ATM in Tatarstan.

The whole number of ATMs in the united ATM network ATMoSphere (Ukraine) has reached 2 834 active devices. From the beginning of 2009 the АТМ network has increased by 21 percent (493 devices). During this time three more banks have joined the network, thus, now 22 credit organizations are its participants.

Alfa bank has presented research work “Development of Internet payments in Russia”. According to the report, following the results of 2008, the volume of online-payments market (considering sales on bank cards in online-shops) has totaled $6 billion.

Volgo-Vyatsky bank of Sberbank of Russia has already issued over 3 million cards. In September of 2008, Volgo-Vyatsky bank reached the level of 2 million cards. Thus during the year the bank has issued a million cards.

Western Union and Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan have signed the agreement on rendering services of Western Union remittances in 595 bank offices, located in 22 regions.

According to Diners Club Russia press-office, during the first half of 2009, the number of railway cash desks (1460) and special offices – services-centers where Diners Club cards are accepted – has increased.

According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), in August, 2009, the volume of private deposits has increased by 1.3 percent (from the beginning of the year this indicator has reduced by 5.4 percent) and has totaled 203.9 billion grivnas (or about $39 million).

The number of purchases made with use of Internet acquiring system of the Ukrainian processing center (UPC), for 8 months of 2009 has increased in 2.3 times: from 884,000 to 2 million transactions.

The Central bank of Azerbaijan (the National Bank of Azerbaijan, NBA) states that volumes of personal lending in the country heavily lag behind the numbers of non-financial organizations.

The number of users of Raiffeisen CONNECT, the internet banking system of Raiffeisenbank, has totaled 300,000.

According to Alexey Simanovsky, director of Banking Regulation and Supervision Department of the Bank of Russia, the Central Bank will continue decreasing rates in case of the further delay of inflation.

Ingosstrakh Insurance Company has paid Uhtabank an insurance benefit for burnt down ATM and cash.

Renaissance Credit declares a start of a new product – debit MasterCard Gold card.

Bank24.ru has provided clients with opportunity of getting a credit card having only two documents: passport of the Russian Federation and the second document.

From October, 2009, Russian Standard Bank cancels post mailing statements of accounts to its clients free of charge. Now borrowers can get the information about crediting and debiting their accounts, penalty charging only on a paying basis.

According to participants of the meeting in the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia devoted to cooperation with Russian Post, using opportunities of Russian Post  will enable to accelerate considerable expansion of a network of the multipurpose centers for governmental and municipal services throughout the Russian Federation and will save some budgetary funds.

LiqPay payment platform, the developer and the processing center of which is PrivatBank (Ukraine), offers the afford an opportunity to accept cards, make remittances, support financial transactions, manage payments and electronic personal verification of clients.

According to the Department of external and public relations of the Bank of Russia, on August, 31, 2009, the monetary base (narrow definition) equaled 3,976.4 billion roubles against 4,078.6 billion roubles as of August, 24, 2009.

Clients of VTB24 remote maintenance service now can pull funds from their virtual cards.

Ingosstrakh Insurance Company has paid out one of the most considerable single insurance benefits under the policy of bank card issuers risks insurance. The size of the insurance benefit paid to a large Russian bank, has totaled about 2 million roubles.

According to the Bank of Russia, in July, 2009, the volume of personal credits issued by Russian banks was reduced by 0.4 percent, from the beginning of 2009 the portfolio has decreased by 8.3 percent. Thus on August, 1, we’ve seen a negative dynamics for the 12 months before the reporting date, – a 1.5 percent decrease. And it’s the first time for the last 1.5 years. At the same period of 2008 the gain was 25.8 percent.

PrivatBank (Ukraine) together with Visa Inc. have declared results of “Schedraya Kreditka”, a campaign for PrivatBank Visa cardholders. The action was conducted from May, 1, till August, 1, 2009 and was aimed to improve culture of credit card use.

NXP Semiconductors today announced that its secure microcontroller-based chip technology MIFARE DESFire has been selected by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), an IT organization under the Ministry of Railways, to power contactless smart cards for automatic fare collection using ATVMs (Automatic Ticket Vending Machines) across various cities in India.

Sovkombank finance group (Sovkombank, Regional credit bank, network of credit agencies “ARKA”) and Russian Post have concluded the agreement under which from September, 1, 2009 Russian Post has started to accept remittances as repayments of Sovkombank credits.

From September, 1, till December, 31, 2009 all small and medium-sized businesses as well as individual entrepreneurs can take part in a promotion action in all branches of Rosbank.

MilliKart processing center has successfully tested VeriFone Vx610, a new mobile GSM/GPRS POS-terminal.

PrivatBank plans to open 100 more new bank offices throughout the country till the end of 2009. According to Alexander Dubilet, chairman of PrivatBank, since October, 2008, the bank infrastructure has grown from 2,890 to 3,000 offices.

Raiffeisen Bank Aval (Ukraine) together with Portmone Company has introduced Portmone. Mobile system of instant mobile payments.

Sergey Sobyanin, Deputy Prime Minister, Chief of the RF Government Staff, considers announced Astrakhan joint project of Sberbank, Pension Fund of Russia and regional government on social card development as the major “technological tool for government services providing”.

“The global economic crisis has cut the volume of remittances into the country, – Vakhid Akhmedov, member of Azerbaijan Parliament commission on economic development, has declared. Growth of the gross national product worldwide gets 1.5 percent while in Azerbaijan this indicator comes nearer to 4 percent. And it is a good rate. Despite of great internal potential of the country, nevertheless, the number of Azerbaijanians working abroad is not small”.

Alfa bank has won an OBI tender on issuing consumer credits in the retail network. So, Alfa bank and OBI have concluded a cooperation agreement according which OBI customers can get a consumer credit directly in a hypermarket.

From September, 1, 2009, StarBank (Moscow) gets its Union Card project closed. From this moment Union Cards, issued by Noyabrskiy gorodskoy bank (now StarBank), will stop being accepted.

AlfaStrakhovanie–Zhizn (AlfaInsurance – life) has won an open competitive tender on choosing an insurance company as a Sberbank partner for accumulative life insurance programs.

According to Farkhad Aliev, the executive director of the Azerbaijan Banks Association (ABA), the group of ABA experts is still working on developing a complex of bank offers for country’s card market improvement.

As Michael Sukhov, a representative of the Central Bank of the Russia, has declared,  on August, 1, 2009, a share of the delinquent loans has grown to 5.4 percent of the total credit portfolio of Russian banks.

MasterCard announced that it has approved personal card readers and authentication servers from four vendors for MasterCard Advanced Authentication for Chip- a new EMV authentication solution that leverages the hundreds of millions of EMV cards already in the wallets of cardholders.

Online payments system Moneta.ru has started a beta testing of its new service –”Loan Line”. Since August, 24, 2009, all users with personalized accounts have got an opportunity to pay goods and services on credit.

WebMoney Transfer has announced its start of Rebills service.

According to the Department of external and public relations of the Bank of Russia, on August, 24, 2009, the monetary base (narrow definition) equaled 4,078.6 billion roubles against 4,076.5 billion roubles as of August, 17, 2009.

Bank24.ru has activated the 100,000th express card.

On August, 26, 2009, at the head office of Sberbank of Russia (Moscow) Jury Golovin, head of the department on managing “Housing and communal services” project gave a briefing on Sberbank’s project – “Social card throughout the country”.

Within 7 months of 2009, the West Siberian Railways has sold 14,822 tickets by bank cards. And it’s 24 percent more than in 2008.

In the first half of August, CONTACT system network was spreading by opening 138 new service points per day. In two weeks, inhabitants of 673 towns of four newly joined countries – Albania, India, Mexico and Chile – have got an access to CONTACT’s services.

Since July, 2009, the Bank of Russia has joined the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) of the Bank for International Settlements.

According to the project of the government Decree prepared by the Agency on Informatization and Communication of the Republic of Kazakhstan (AIC RК), in the near future, the Computer Incident Response Service will be set up at the republic government organization “Center of Technical Support and Analysis for Telecommunications Industry”.

Sberbank of Russia has announced its results of 7 months of 2009. The net profit of the bank has totaled 6.8 billion roubles against of 81.8 billion roubles for 7 months of 2008.

Tieto Corporation announces about a number of changes in the regional organizational structure, because of its expansion in Russia.
Tuomo Summanen, CEO of  Tieto Corporation for Russia and Belarus, since December, 2008, on August, 1, 2009 has come into CEO office of TietoEnator, Ltd.

Credobank (Ukraine) has announced its joining the National System of Mass Electronic Payments (NSMEP). An appropriate contract has been signed with the National Bank of Ukraine in August.

On August, 24, Dmitry Medvedev, the President of Russia, has declared that, in his opinion, banks are quite capable even now to issue mortgage credits at 14 percent. The President has noticed that we could return to the pre-depression level for the next 2–3 years. Thus, he has declared, a "good enough" mortgage rate is not more than 6–7 percent.

Swedbank (Russia) has launched a new functional of Internet-bank – "Service payment" – for clients who have accounts opened in any bank branch in Russia.

In the near future all Russian airlines will be obliged at drawing up electronic tickets to give the information only in Russian.

As Alexey Ulyukaev, the first deputy of the chairman of the Bank of Russia, has declared, banks’ credit portfolio can grow by 7–8 percent till the end of the year, and delinquent debts would be no more than 10–12 percent.

In the middle of August, 2009, TransCreditBank starts rendering a service of cash withdrawing to China UnionPay (CUP) cardholders.

Since September, 20, 2009 VTB24 introduces uniform rules of issuing and using VTB24 bank cards. New rules covers the whole retail line of credit cards as well as debit cards and overdraft cards (including salary cards).

Since August, 15, 2009 the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development (UBRD, Yekaterinburg) has started accepting cards of China UnionPay (CUP) payment system.

According to the National Bank of Moldova, in the first half of 2009, the volume of remittances made by individuals in the Republic of Moldova, has decreased by 31.8 percent as against of the same period of 2008, and has hardly totaled $515 million. The volume of remittances made using international systems has decreased by 32.1 percent and has totaled $419.9 million.

Vympelcom has declared expanding mobile payment services in its Beeline network with a new service of making payments for railway tickets in Russia, CIS and Baltic countries from the mobile phone account.

From July till the first decade of August of 2009, the International system of remittances and payments CONTACT was getting increased by 60 cash points per day. The list of localities, where you can get remittances made through the system, has enlarged by 646 new towns.

According to the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as of August, 1, 2009, Kazakhstan banks has issued 7.115 million cards, and the number of cardholders has totaled 6.659 million. It’s 8.2 percent more than in the same period of 2008 by both indicators.

As Grigory Vasilevich, the Prosecutor General of Belarus, has declared on August, 19, 2009, a significant amount of АТМs in republic is established with breaches of security requirements.

On August, 21, 2009 Nizhniy Novgorod bank will turn over its portfolio of issued bank cards to the processing center of Promsvyazbank for processing. It will make a possibility to unite АТМs of both banks into a single network.

A number of credit debt collecting proceedings, the Federal Bailiff Service of Russia (FBS) got to execute, has grown twice as against of 2008 and has totaled 1.127 million ones.

For six months from the moment of launching a new deposit "Bankomatnyi" in Vozrozhdenie bank, 14,000 clients have taken advantage of making such deposit through ATM. As of today there are about 5,000 actual fixed deposits, made through ATM, in the bank database.

The East-Siberian bank of Sberbank of Russia has brought intermediate results of its joint project “Single social card of Krasnoyarsk region” with Krasnoyarsk region government.

“Obyedinennaya systema momentalnykh platezhey” (OSMP, brand QIWI) and e-port Group have declared their legal and operational consolidation.

Federal payment system "Gorod" ("City")  and Department of Federal Tax Service of Novosibirsk region have offered inhabitants of Novosibirsk a new service – informing of tax liability for transport and land taxes as well as individual property tax.

From the beginning of 2009 deposits of individuals in Vozrozhdenie bank have increased by 16.8 percent and exceeded 46 billion roubles. 

Bank of Baku (Azerbaijan) gets down to implement its project of electronic office "Khagani".
Cash-in kiosks, established in "Khagani", enables clients to repay their credits, to pay for online-services and to replenish deposits.

In the Court of Grave Crimes of Azerbaijan has been held a preparatory session on a criminal case of the organized criminal group accused of illegal access to the computer information.

According to Vadim Melnik, head of department of aircraft of the Ministry of transport and communications of Belarus, Belavia airlines is going to launch its new web-site, where you can make a reservation and book air tickets online in a real-time, using bank cards.

On August, 7, 2009, AvtoVAZ trade union has turned to banks with a request to be more indulgent to insolvent borrowers – workers of the plant, because of their salary axing. Currently, about 110,000 people work on the plant.

Khreschatik bank (Ukraine) and International invest bank (IIB, Ukraine) have united their АТМs and cash-in devices as a single network.

According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, in the first half of 2009, Russian banks have issued  cards for individuals by 3.1 percent more than at the beginning of the year and it has totaled 122.897 million cards, thus in the second quarter we observed a 0.96 percent growth.

UNIStream, a system of remittances, has started the project on development of a network of service points through branches of Bank of Georgia, so it intends to enlarge its network in Georgia by 135 points. Today UNIStream already has 350 points there and has partner relations with seven local financial institutes.

Ingosstrakh has paid out an insurance benefit to a large Russian bank under the policy of ATM and cash insurance.

The Central bank of Armenia has made a decision to decrease the official bank rate by 0.25 percent to 5.25 percent. It’s happened on August, 11 at the council meeting of the Central Bank.

Sbercard, an operator of the United Russian Payment System (URPS), has audited Verhnelensky bank (Irkutsk region, Ust Kut) on compliance with general system requirements to subjects of URPS. After all organizational arrangements get finished the bank project on issuing and servicing URPS cards will work in an interbank mode.

A process of transitioning government services to electronic form will start at the end of 2010 – the beginning of 2011. Igor Schegolev, the Minister for Communications and Mass-media, announced this in Sochi, on August, 11, on the meeting with Vladimir Putin, the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

In the second quarter of 2009, the volume of remittances to Azerbaijan on the international system of remittances and payments CONTACT has increased by 32 percent as against of the first quarter.

Growth of actual unemployment, sharp salary reduction, back pays, all of these have caused that many citizens of Ukraine are not able to discharge their debts on credit cards in time and in full.
By estimates of market players, the possible level of the delayed "card" debts might be 30 percent of the total portfolio of such credits.

At once some Russian banks of TOP–100, have received inquiries from territorial administrations of the Central Bank of Russia directly supervising their activity, about economic validity of high rates on individual deposits they offer.

Meanwhile, the economy remains bottomed, with car sales collapsing 58% YoY in July Reuters quotes Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin as saying yesterday: “There are no fundamental reasons for devaluing the rouble… I am against artificial actions, devaluations”, adding that the RUB rate needs to be determined by the market. He believes that rouble devaluation will not be needed as oil prices should remain high until at least the middle of 2010.

Tieto has developed an interface to the system of the China UnionPay (CUP) payment card association that enables its members to reliably issue its payment cards. The first Tieto Card Suite customer that has been certified to issue China UnionPay cards is Ipak Yuli Bank in Uzbekistan.

The Perm branch of VSK Insurance House has paid out more than 700,000 roubles (22,050 US dollars) as the insurance benefit for the cracked АТМ in Kultaevo village (in Perm region).

Sberbank of Russia, with assistance of Visa Inc., has announced a national creative competition “Your design of Sberbank Visa card for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games“.

A new service of Russian Railways (RZD) – electronic registration on long-distance trains – is getting very popular among passengers.

Bank Ekaterinburg has livened up the work in “Zolotaya Korona – Denezhnye perevody” (Remittances) system.

40 thousand inhabitants of Ulyanovsk have already got social cards.
The card gives access to the account on which different benefits are transferred.

Since August, 3, 2009, Rosselhozbank has started issuing MasterCard Worldwide cards. It offers clients three categories of debit cards: MasterCard Standard, MasterCard Country and MasterCard Instant Issue.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation suggests permitting making remittances in roubles from Russia onto accounts of residents and non-residents in foreign banks as well as rouble remittances from accounts in foreign banks onto bank accounts in Russia.

On August, 7, 2009, the board of directors of the Bank of Russia has made a decision to decrease the official bank rate by 0.25 percent to 10.75 percent since August, 10, 2009.

According to the results of market research of banking services for individuals, held by GfK Ukraine, in II quarter of 2009 the share of those who intends to make purchases using their savings has increased by 6 percent – to 55 percent.

For 7 months of 2009 Omsk branch of the Western Siberian Railways has sold through the Internet almost 7 thousand tickets for long-distance trains that is 536 percent more than in 2008.

On August, 6, 2009, Mail.Ru declared the start of its own payment system – Dengi@Mail.Ru. You can use it to pay for services of mobile or fixed communications, public utilities, Internet, web-hosting, etc.

According to the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), by the end of 2009 the inflation rate in the country will be 3.5 percent, and by the end of II quarter of 2010 – 2.7 percent.
Throughout the whole 12-month period of the forecast the inflation rate will stay within the certain corridor – 4 +/- 1.5 percent.

“The National bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) does not expect bankruptcies in the country banking system in the near future”, - said Pavel Kallaur, the first deputy of chairman of the board of NBRB.

According to the Azerbaijan mortgage fund (AMF), in June-July, more than 400 citizens of Azerbaijan got mortgage loans for a total of over 17 million manats ($21 million). Thus, only in July, 2009, mortgage loans were issued for a total of 16 million manats ($20 million).

Many companies might consider an economic recession a bad time to enter a new market, but GRG says the timing is right for a new ATM player to make a strong push in the United States.
GRG Banking Equipment Co. Ltd., the No. 1 ATM supplier and largest ATM manufacturer in China, has struggled over the last five years to successfully penetrate the U.S., namely because the company never had a strong U.S. base.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has informed about receiving the application for purchasing 50 percent of voting shares of "Experian-Interfax" credit bureau from Sberbank of Russia.

In July, 2009, the number of UNIStream clients has hit record high from the system foundation in 2001. This month, UNIStream has processed 552,000 transactions.

According to Marina Kardakova, vice-president and director of department for payment systems of AVTOVAZBANK (AVB Bank), “the bank is the first bank-member of NCC system which has got issuing the card, that combines features of both Russian and international payment systems.

For the first week of sales of a new card product “League Uspekha” (League of Success) Khreschatik bank (Ukraine) has obtained about 3 million grivnas ($381 thousand) onto more than 300 card accounts.

MasterCard Europe announced its second-quarter 2009 operating results for the Europe region. Against a stormy economic environment, strong partnerships with its customer financial institutions and leading retailers resulted in several business milestones for MasterCard Europe, while European consumers increasingly continued to use their MasterCard-branded cards at the point of sale with purchase transactions up 7.2% compared to 12 months ago.

OpenWay has completed benchmark testing of WAY4 payment processing software conducted in Sun Microsystems' Solution Center located in the UK. WAY4 has proven to successfully handle 60,000,000 cards in its database while processing 1170 authorisations per second on open platform.

Central Bank of Belarus has issued the decree “On putting additions and changes into the Rules of e-cash transactions“. The main goal of this decree is to create legal environment for making e-cash transactions through cash-in devices.

URALSIB bank and Swedbank have signed the agreement on cooperation in card issuing and servicing.

964 of 1 083 banks operating in Russia and reported to the Bank of Russia, have got the profit in the first half of 2009. Their profit has totaled in 130.595 billion roubles. At the same time, 119 banks have finished with losses for 123.8 billion roubles.

National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of Uzbekistan (NBU) announces, that its balance of individual accounts has increased by 44 bn in sums and totaled in 268 bn sums ($181.5 million).

Peter Prokopovich, the chairman of the Board of the National bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) has declared at its press-conference in Minsk, that NBRB intends to continue dedollarizing the economy.

Peter Prokopovich, the chairman of the National bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) has declared, that Belarus banks have problems with 2.6% of their issued credits so far.

According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, as of June, 1, 2009, deposits of individuals at Russian banks have exceeded 6.316 bn roubles and have increased by 11.7% as against of the same date in 2008.

On July, 28, 2009, the department of self-service network support of the Ukrainian processing center (UPC) has taken up ATMs of Volynsk office of Raiffeisen Bank Aval (Ukraine, Kiev) for service.

Cetelem, 100% affiliated structure of BNP Paribas Group and No. 1 in Europe in consumer crediting, continues its development on the Russian market and announces the expansion of MasterCard credit cards emission in Russia.