Andrei Kostin knocked out German Gref from the Moscow subway

VTB will replace Sberbank's ATMs in the Moscow Metro with its own.
27.11.2017
RBC
Origin source
Salary Bank of the Moscow Metro VTB won a tender for the placement of ATMs in the subway. The winner of the previous tender Sberbank dismantles its ATMs at metro stations.

VTB started installation of ATMs in the Moscow Metro in late October this year, told RBC in the press service of the bank. "It is planned to install 94 devices at 65 stations, of which 30 ATMs have already been installed," VTB said.

Installation of ATMs is carried out within the terms of the tender of the Moscow Metro, which the bank won on September 12, 2017 for a period of five years. In addition, VTB implements an acquiring project for non-cash payment of travel and replenishment of the "Troika" card with the help of a bank card, as well as a salary project for employees of the subway, the press service added.

At the same time, Sberbank, whose 101 ATMs were installed in the metro as part of the tender, dismantles its devices, it follows from the information on the website of state procurement. "Currently, Sberbank withdraws self-service devices from the subway, as a tender for installing devices in the metro area was won by another bank," explained RBC in the press service of the bank. The representative of the bank added that the lease expired in October. In the Savings Bank did not comment on how wide and profitable was the cooperation of the bank with the Moscow subway. In the Moscow Metro did not respond to the request of RBC.

Is it profitable

Starting from scratch, cooperation with the subway, installing only ATMs in it, - for most banks, unprofitable business because of the high cost of servicing ATMs themselves, as well as the low number of commission operations on ATM in the subway, say experts interviewed by RBC. However, if, as in the situation with VTB, the bank also serves the subway for other projects (salary project, acquiring, etc.), this is an economically justified and logical decision. The remuneration received by banks not using the ATM network of the bank - the issuer of the card is reduced, and the costs of maintaining the ATM network are growing, as only foreign equipment is purchased, the prices for which have doubled since 2014, explains Igor Antonov, vice president of Transcapitalbank. "The more cash withdrawal operations, the now is worse for the bank: it is necessary to collect more often, the turnover of cash is increasing. As a result, the cost price grows and the amount of compensation (the fee of one bank to another through the payment system) becomes at the cost level, and sometimes even in the red, "the banker explains. In addition, according to his estimates, the costs are higher and because of the more active use of ATMs in the metro, their prevention must be done once a month, and not once a year, as for ATMs in the offices.

At railway stations or in the metro, where large flows of users, ATM services often belong to banks in reports to the article "advertising" (in the places they pass, they are also advertising media), because the bank's expenses for maintenance and rental of premises are all the same more than the fee income from withdrawing cash, says the chairman of the board of SDM-Bank Maxim Solntsev.

On the other hand, if the bank serves the entire subway and has a salary project with it, then installing it in the metro even for ATMs becomes a sound and economically viable project, says Igor Antonov. "In this case, for example, the collectors come to one point and collect several places at once, in turn, the cost of these procedures is already com- pletely reduced and the yield is increased," the expert concludes.

The yield on the profitability of this project is possible only with a comprehensive service within the salary project, and only for the largest issuers and acquirers, including VTB, says another interlocutor in the financial market. In particular, the benefit of acquiring is due to the fact that the issuing bank and the acquirer do not share the commission with other banks during a large number of transactions, but only with the payment system.

Experts found it difficult to assess the profitability for VTB of this project in more detail, but they did not rule out that the bank's interest in it could include the image component. "For VTB, this is also an important image and infrastructure project," says Igor Antonov.

9 million potential users

In 2016, the Moscow Metro transported 2.378 billion passengers, according to the subway website. On average, more than 7 million passengers use metro services every day. On weekdays this indicator is the highest in the world and exceeds 9 million people.

About 56% is the share of the Moscow Metro in the transportation of passengers among the urban passenger transport companies of the capital.