In late May Russia’s State Duma released a draft of proposed litigation toward cryptocurrencies and companies that deal with the technology. The draft called “On Digital Financial Assets,” is an updated version on how lawmakers might regulate the crypto industry in the near future. The documents do not delve much into personal holdings, trading, and cross-border remittances, …
Russia’s cryptocurrency laws remain in the gray zone Read More
Sberbank, the state-controlled finance and technology behemoth, Azbuka Vkusa, a leading grocery retail outlet network, and Visa have teamed up to launch “Russia’s first store fitted with computer vision solutions.” Located in the Moscow City business center, the ‘Take&Go’ store features an “intellectual surveillance system” which “constantly tracks the products on shelves.” When entering the store, customers …
“A US court stopped TON from happening:” with this simple explanation, VK and Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced today he is giving up his widely hyped blockchain and cryptocurrency project. This is the latest, but probably not the last episode of a saga which started in early 2018 with a controversial $1.7 billion ICO. Many unforeseen developments followed, …
Pavel Durov gives up his blockchain project, shifting the blame to US authorities Read More
Russian payment major Qiwi will shut down the mobile banking service Rocketbank by the end of this year, having failed to find an acquirer for this asset. Qiwi’s financial report reveals that Rocketbank’s net loss amounted to 684 million last year (slightly more than $10 million at last year’s exchange rate), up 17% from 2018. The …
Mobile banking service Rocketbank to shut down after eight years of eventful life Read More
Russia has urged consumers and businesses to use digital payments rather than cash in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus and told banks to limit ruble notes in circulation. Consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor this month encouraged Russians to move to cashless payments, citing World Health Organization guidelines stating that a virus can …
Russians urged to reject cash to slow coronavirus spread Read More
Russia is testing facial-payment technology at supermarkets and could roll it out on a large scale by the middle of the year. VTB, Russia’s second-largest lender, is testing the technology in the Lenta supermarket chain, the head of the bank’s digital division told Izvestia. Promsvyazbank, another Russian lender, is holding talks to launch the technology in …
Russian retailers test facial-payment technology, possible rollout in 2020 Read More
Russians may soon be able to use digital tokens to buy metals, book air tickets and transfer ski passes from Vladimir Potanin’s businesses after the billionaire got the go-ahead for his blockchain platform. Potanin has long signaled plans to start crypto tokens for metals, but can now expand the project to the consumer side of …
Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin launches metals blockchain Read More
As international demand for cryptocurrency is on the rise again, Russian searches for “биткоин” (bitcoin) on both Google and Yandex have been increasing. In the past month, Russian speaking users have been asking the search engines about bitcoin’s current rates in US dollar and Russian ruble and over the past week there’s been a 350% …
Leading Russian consumer lender TCS Group, which operates Russia’s only pure online bank Tinkoff, will invest in the fintech project launched in Europe by two of its managers. As reported by bne IntelliNews, the capitalisation of TCS topped $5 billion in London this week. The bank’s investment case is seen as solid, as it has transformed from credit card …
Russia’s TCS Group ventures into fintech in Europe Read More
The Russian Federation has a new prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, previously head of the country’s tax administration. In this position, Mishustin made comments about cryptocurrencies on multiple occasions, crypto news outlet Forklog reminded. Nobody trusted paper money when it was introduced into circulation and it had to be backed with the gold reserves of central …
Russia’s new prime minister has an opinion of cryptocurrencies Read More
Private banks and credit cards appeared in Russia relatively recently – in the early 1990s after the collapse of the USSR. The local banking system developed from scratch, and didn’t have to depend on old software solutions, thus avoiding many of the intermediate development stages that more advanced economies had to go through. As a …
10 Russian online banking features that you probably don’t have Read More
The Russian chatbot market is set to increase three-fold in 2020, reaching or exceeding 4 billion rubles (around $65 million at the current exchange rate), says a report by industry association Neuronet. This market already grew three-fold this year to around 1.5 billion rubles ($24 million). While banks, financial and insurance companies were initially the main …
Russian chatbot market takes off, banks and retailers among early adopters Read More
