VTB sign strategic partnership with Alibaba Group, Ant Financial in Russia
DAVOS. Jan 21 (Interfax) - VTB and Ant Financial Services Group, China's leading online and mobile financial service provider and related company of Alibaba Group, have signed a memorandum of understanding at the World Economic Forum in Davos, VTB said in a press release.
"Under this agreement, the parties will work closely on the payment and banking services in Russia, to provide a comprehensive and reliable shopping experience for Russian consumers as VTB and Ant Financial are officially strategic partners," the bank said.
Alipay, the online and mobile payment business unit of Ant Financial, will act as a single payment gateway for all local payment options which are available on Aliexpress.com, the most popular e-commerce website in Russia, it said.
"Under this partnership VTB Bank will help to develop, expand business and increase the e-commerce operation efficiency of Alipay and Alibaba Group in Russia. Among the possible cooperation activities there are commercial, corporate and investment banking services of VTB," the bank said.
"I am confident that our cooperation with Ant Financial Group and Alibaba Group will be an important step in facilitating trade relations between Russia and China, as well as for the development of e-commerce between the two countries. We expect that the annual volume of trade under this partnership will be billions of rubles and we are very much looking forward to working with our Chinese partners on expanding their customer base in the Russian market," VTB chief Andrei Kostin said at the signing ceremony.
"We are delighted to secure a partnership with such a strong financial institution as VTB Bank and we are sure it will become our valuable strategic partner in the development of the Russian e-commerce market, which is one of the most important for AliExpress globally. We regard the Russian market as highly potential for AliExpress and Alipay and make additional step to be closer to the market and local partners and our valuable clients," said Lucy Peng, CEO of Ant Financial Services Group.
