Sberbank working on payment solution for foreigners

SHANGHAI. May 23 (Interfax) - Sberbank is working on a solution that will enable nonresidents to conveniently make payments, the president and CEO of Russia's largest lender, Herman Gref said.

"Sber is now working on a payment solution for foreign citizens to make it convenient for guests from China and other countries to pay for purchases in our acquiring network," Gref said at a Russia-China business forum.

He also said the bank is prepared to promote the development of Chinese businesses in Russia.

"If a Chinese company wants to open an account in Russia in order to do business, it can confidently turn to Sberbank. Opening accounts for nonresidents is a standard procedure. If a Chinese company wants to obtain a loan from us to develop business in Russia, it can apply through its Russian legal entity or as a foreign company through a representative office - both options are acceptable," Gref said.

Sberbank also invited Chinese companies to cooperate in the area of technology. The bank now uses more than 70 of its own products in its infrastructure, combined in a digital cloud platform, Gref said.

"Development of open source platforms, neural network models and joint R&D centers could become the basis for technological cooperation between Russia and China. Sber already has experience creating such centers and we would be happy to work with Chinese partners," Gref said.

He also said that the share of the yuan in Russian export and import transactions will continue to grow. In the past year, the Chinese currency's share in Russia's export and import transactions has grown from 2% to 18% and from 5% to 27%, respectively.

"At Sberbank we're also seeing considerable client interest in the national currencies of friendly countries in general and the yuan is the undisputed leader here. In 2023 we expect a tenfold increase in the number of transactions in yuan compared to last year," Gref said.