Translated material
Money goes to the CIS
Almost $1.3 billion was transferred from Russia in three months
The volume of remittances from Russia is growing at a rapid pace. According to the Central Bank, in the second quarter of this year, 58% more money was sent from Russia than in the first. These growth rates turned out to be unprecedented in the entire history of the Central Bank maintaining such statistics. Market participants explain this by the general increase in funds in the Russian economy, as well as the population’s adaptation to this method of transferring funds. In addition, the seasonal factor has an impact - the peak of activity in this sector occurs in July and December due to funds sent by labor migrants from the CIS countries.According to the Bank of Russia, the volume of transfers from the country increased to $1.29 billion, while transfers to Russia increased only by 22% - to $0.33 billion.
The most money was sent to Uzbekistan and Ukraine; these countries each accounted for 16.3% of all transfers from Russia. They are followed by Tajikistan with $187 million (14.5%), Armenia - $129 million (10%), Moldova - $115 million (8.9%), Kyrgyzstan - $102 million ( 7.9%). Amounts of less than $100 million were sent to other neighboring countries.
Among countries outside the CIS, the most funds went to China; in April-June this amount amounted to $49 million. This is 3.8% of all transfers, or 37.9% of transfers to non-CIS countries. The United States follows closely behind, with only $9 million sent there.
At the same time, much more funds came to us from the United States during the same period - $49.2 million, or 14.9% of all transfers to the Russian Federation. $22 million was transferred from Uzbekistan, and $21 million from Ukraine.
In total, $330.7 million was transferred to Russia in the second quarter, compared to $227 million sent in the first three months of the year.
Market participants note that all money transfer systems demonstrate stable and high turnover growth rates. For example, the turnover of the UNIStream system, according to the company, in the first quarter of 2006 amounted to $226.4 million, and in the second quarter of 2006 almost doubled to 396.6 million. Moreover, if for the entire 2005 the system turnover amounted to $760 million ., then in the first half of 2006 alone, the system carried out transactions totaling 630 million. “This increase in turnover is due to the favorable situation in the money transfer market,” says director of the UNIStream system Suren Hayriyan. -- Today this market is one of the most dynamically developing. This is due both to the increase in migration processes and to the strengthening of customer confidence in civilized methods of sending money.”
The Bystraya Pochta money transfer system, whose settlement bank is Impexbank, has been operating on the market for approximately 3.5 years, and during this time more than 3 million people have used its services. In the first half of 2006, compared to the same period last year, the volume of transfers doubled and exceeded $450 million. The estimated market share of transfers to the CIS countries based on the results of the first quarter of 2006 was more than 11.5%.
“The upward trend is due to the general economic situation,” say representatives of Impexbank. “In addition, there are seasonal peaks in activity in this sector - they occur in July and December.” According to Impexbank, this is due to transfers made by migrant workers.