Google and Yandex are ”key threats” to banks, says Sberbank’s CEO

The head of Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, has named online giants such as Google and Yandex as the ”key threats” to the company.

Sberbank CEO German Gref warned that traditional banks are set to lose out as increasing amounts of money are being transferred online through services such as Facebook and Yandex Money.

“The problem is that we are not competing with other banks, but with the world’s most powerful Internet platforms,” he said at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday. “We must move from a strategy of catching up to an innovative development strategy within the next five years, or we risk being out of the market.”