Electronic money has already practically saved Russians from the need to contact the bank to open a deposit, transfer or withdraw money. All this can be done outside the bank’s office and, most often, even without leaving home, Alexander Shneiderman, head of the sales and client support department at Alfa-Forex, says.
According to BusinessStat, the online trading market in 2023 grew by 26% over the year, to 4.33 trillion rubles. And it has been growing by tens of percent since 2020. Even in villages, points of delivery of well-known marketplaces appear, which makes shopping more convenient.
“These factors encourage citizens to get debit cards instead of using cash. This plays an even greater role than the attractive conditions of banks,” the expert emphasizes.
That is why requests in offline stores to pay cash cause resistance. Stores are fighting this resistance to their detriment – for example, a 10% discount for cash, Alexander Schneiderman continues. This is bad for two reasons: the bank’s commission for acquiring and the benefit for the needs of taxation is incomparably lower, moreover, cash is not spent purely psychologically in such a volume as electronic money, which is not physically available.
“The state has invented an alternative to acquiring – the Fast Payment System (FPS), this practice has become normal in capitals, large networks and even in spontaneous markets,” the specialist emphasizes.