Leading financial company Finam has invested $1 million in CreditCardsOnline.ru, a portal that aggregates credit card offerings from various banks and offers an online card application procedure. The news was reported yesterday by Russian business daily Kommersant, to whom an unnamed source revealed Finam had received a 25% stake in the company in exchange for the investment.
Founded in November 2010, CreditCardsOnline.ru could generate an EBITDA of €500,000, this year, said a Finam representative to Kommersant. The market of online credit card aggregators could represent €5 million in 2012, up from just €400,000 in 2010, and €2 million in 2011, Finam estimated.
There were only 11.2 million active credit card accounts in Russia in mid-2011, Kommersant reported. Russians generally have debit cards. Many use them to withdraw their salary in cash from ATMs.
In 2010, Finam purchased a 30% stake in Banki.ru, a leading Russian banking information site.
