Sberbank mixed up all the cards
Yesterday it became known that Sberbank radically changed its strategy in the plastic card market - it began to connect third-party banks to its processing. Moreover, to connect regional banks, he intends to create a network of processing centers in the regions. All this will lead to a sharp increase in competition in the plastic card market and a radical redistribution of the processing services market.

Yesterday, the director of the bank card department of Sberbank, Andrei Sobolev, said in an interview with Prime-TASS that in the near future the Credit-Moscow bank will switch to service at the processing center of Sberbank. This seemingly inconspicuous event actually means the beginning of a market redistribution.
The fact is that until now Sberbank has only serviced its own cards, and Credit-Moscow Bank will become the first third-party bank connected to its processing. In other words, the largest Russian bank is radically changing its strategy in the plastic card market. According to Kommersant's information, Sberbank has already accumulated quite a few applications from banks to connect to it as a “third processor.” And this is not surprising, because Sberbank is present in all regions.
Until now, regional banks connected to international payment systems either through STB Card or through principal member banks of Visa and Europay, which had their own processing. Now Sberbank is entering this market, and it will be very difficult for competitors to fight it. According to Sobolev, Sberbank plans to create a network of processing centers in regional banks. They will serve banks connected to the Sberbank processing center.
First of all, this will hit the STB-Card business - this processing center has recently been more active in moving into the regions than others. For example, the same bank "Credit-Moscow" still served Europay cards through STB-Card. The head of STB-Card, Vladislav Pershin, told Kommersant that he learned about the negotiations between Credit-Moscow Bank and Sberbank back in May. However, he noted that if Sberbank continues to act in the same way, it will indeed become a direct competitor for his company.
However, Sberbank’s aggressive offensive in the processing market will affect not only STB-Card. After all, the bank is clearly not going to limit itself to the role of a “third processor.” If only because this is necessary only for principal members of international payment systems, the number of which is limited.
Having allowed third-party banks to participate in its processing, Sberbank will sooner or later begin to connect banks to international payment systems as affiliated members. And this will lead to much greater changes in the balance of power in the market, since there are many more banks that do not have sufficient funds to obtain the status of principal members. Through Sberbank, regional banks that previously did not have such an opportunity will have access to international systems.
This will lead to a significant increase in competition between banks that have their own processing centers and provide services to others. As a result, there will be changes in tariff policy. At the same time, Sberbank is so large that in the fight for the market it may well resort to dumping and provide services to banks at a price below cost.

MAXIM BUYLOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 166 dated 09/07/2000, p. 7

Authors:

Maxim Builov