On June 7, 2018, research company The Nilson Report announced that Sberbank became the largest acquirer in Europe for the second year in a row. In 2017, Sberbank handled more than nine billion transactions in its acquiring network. This number increased by 20 percent compared to the figure for the previous year. The report took into account the data on Sberbank’s business in Russia. As in the previous year, Worldpay (7.91 billion transactions) was the second largest acquirer in Europe, and Barclays (6.89 billion transactions) was third.

In 2011, Sberbank took the 12th spot in The Nilson Report; a year later, it reached the sixth spot (1.3 billion transactions). In 2014, Sberbank became one of the three largest acquirers in Europe (3.6 billion transactions), and, in 2015, it was ranked second (5.3 billion transactions).

The Nilson Report takes into account the transactions made in-store, online, and on a mobile web application.

“In 2017, our acquiring business focused on developing the functionality and the reliability of our payment infrastructure. Almost all of our terminals accept contactless cards and allow purchases to be paid for with NFC-capable smartphones or watches. Last year, our terminals started accepting China’s Union Pay, in addition to Visa, MasterCard, and Mir. We have launched our own mPOS solution, mobile terminals, and apps that are now popular for paying for orders from online delivery services,” said managing director of Sberbank’s retail business block Svetlana Kirsanova. “As a result, in 2017, the number of POS terminals increased by 23 percent and reached 1.3 million devices,” Ms. Kirsanova added.

The Nilson Report researches banking cards and payments on a global scale and publishes a magazine with the same name, which is widely recognized by market players. The company was founded 46 years ago.