In 2017, clients of online stores made more than 200 million purchases using Sberbank’s payment infrastructure, the bank announced on April 12, 2018. The group of online stores using Sberbank’s acquiring services grew fivefold in 2017 to 42,000. According to Sberbank’s estimates, it now has a 30-percent share of the online acquiring market.

The bank’s network of POS terminals totaled almost 1.4 million devices. They are all equipped with contactless technology. In 2017, Sberbank configured its network of POS terminals to accept China’s Union Pay-branded cards. These cards are mainly used by Chinese tourists and are utilized most often at stores selling clothing and shoes (28 percent of purchases), electronics (25 percent), cosmetics (19 percent), and jewelry (16 percent). The average purchase made using China’s Union Pay cards is around 2,500 rubles.

Sberbank set up payment infrastructure at 15,000 transportation hubs in 30 Russian cities, which lets people pay for public transit rides using contactless bank cards. The number of bus, trolleybus, and metro rides paid for using Sberbank’s acquiring terminals exceeded 2.3 million in March 2018 alone. “Payment infrastructure development is a major driver of growth for our share of cash-free transactions, which now stands at 60 percent. Last year, we focused on delivering payment services to the rapidly growing e-commerce segment. According to our estimates, Sberbank’s share of the online acquiring market has grown to 30 percent. Our internet acquiring business has grown thanks to the sector’s active expansion and the bank’s offering enhanced products and services,” said Sberbank’s head of acquiring and banking cards division Svetlana Kirsanova.

Cash-free transactions are commercial transactions, cash-free payments, and cash-free transfers (including P2P transfers, with the exception of transfers between a client’s own accounts) made using debit cards.