Tinkoff Bank has become Fast Payment System (FPS) provider for ruble transactions abroad using a mobile phone number, the bank’s representative told RBC.

Tinkoff has already made the first payment of 1,000 rubles from a Hice bank client to the Kyrgyz MBANK. MBANK is a mobile bank of Kyrgyzstan’s Commercial bank and Hice is a Russian  mobile bank for business that operates under the license of Modulbank.

From the technological and legal sides, the cross-border functionality in the FPS has been implemented since April 2022, which gives banks the opportunity to launch various options of payments and transfers, competing in the payment market, a representative of the Bank of Russia told RBC: “Banks make decisions on the implementation of cross-border operations independently, based on their business-strategy and client policy.”

Tinkoff and the Bank of Russia did not disclose the size of the commission, the timing of the full launch of the service, and the list of banks.

The bank’s representative explained that the transfers will be made in rubles and converted to local currency at the receiving bank.

In the future, the bank plans to launch transfers through the FPS to other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and near abroad. Transfers from foreign banks to Russia will be launched at the end of 2022.

The operations are carried out within the FPS. SWIFT and the Financial Messaging System do not participate in them.

Tinkoff Bank introduced direct transfers using a mobile phone number to banks in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2021 (through its system, not through the FPS). In early 2019 the Bank of Russia launched the Fast Payment System, which allows transferring money using a phone number to an account in another bank, and until recently it included only ruble transfers.

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