MOSCOW, March 28 Large banks are discussing the possibility of creating an alternative payment system, starting to test hypotheses with the exchange of fast payment services, said Sergei Khromov, vice president and deputy director of the Tinkoff payment systems department, in an interview with Kommersant.
He recalled that with the departure of Visa and MasterCard, “essentially, one payment system remained — the National Payment Card System (NSPC), which is both Mir and SBP.”
“But, as you know, the engine of development is competition, struggle: it stimulates us to make better products, better services, invent new things. From this point of view, the presence of several payment systems is a priori better than one. This also includes the issue of the security of the payment infrastructure country,» says the vice president of Tinkoff.
According to him, large banks have been discussing the idea of creating an alternative payment system for quite some time, but this will require “huge investments, both financial and human.”
“Therefore, to begin with, in order to test our hypotheses, understand how we can move further and build a large system, we need to start small. Many large banks have Pay services — so we have decided to exchange them. Today, in stores that accept payments using Sber QR codes, payment is available through Tinkoff Pay and Alfa Pay. Accordingly, in the near future our terminals will also have the opportunity to pay through Tinkoff Pay, as well as other services — SberPay and Alfa Pay. We expect similar steps from others banks,» he explained.
Such a payment system can be open, and marketplaces can connect to it.
«But, like any payment system, it must have rules, standards that have yet to be developed. And participants in this payment system will have to meet these standards,» Khromov emphasized.
As for the generally active development of ecosystems of banks, marketplaces or mobile operators, the expert believes that this will not lead to the creation of a monopoly for any of these players; rather, they will complement each other, since who Some historically have better financial services, while others have better media content.
«In my opinion, the most promising model is a partnership between ecosystems. And such examples already exist. For example, Tinkoff Kassa has already opened its ecosystem to other payment methods: SberPay, SBP, Mir Pay, and so on further. In the future, the list will expand,» Khromov said.