Where do the Russians send their money?

More than half of Russians still do not use banking services, and most money transfers are made within the country. These are the main conclusions of the study initiated by Western Union - a company that provides services in the field of money transfers.

54% of respondents have no bank account.

The most poorly, according to the study, banking services are developed in the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasus Federal District: 66% of respondents here negatively answered the question of having an account with a bank. The only district where this question was more affirmative than negative answers, the Urals became 50.6%.

A tremendous difference is observed in the levels of provision of banking services in the village and in cities: the study showed an almost double difference between Moscow and the rural area in the number of respondents who have a bank account. In Moscow, 35% of respondents have no bank account, and in residents of the village - in 68.2% of cases. In cities with a population of less than 100 thousand people, 48.4% of respondents have no bank account.

The most popular among Russians are transactions in the country.

There is no official statistics on this issue, however, the Western Union survey showed that the vast majority of money transfers sent and received by the Russians over the past two years have been carried out in Russia.

Most of the money transfers goes to pay for goods and services. Another of the most popular funds of money transfers is “regular support of loved ones”. The most popular way of transferring funds from Russians is to transfer from a bank card. In our country, 26% of respondents have been used over the past two years. In second place is a bank transfer from an account to the account (23%), in the third - postal transfer (22%), followed by money transfers (18%) and online payment systems (11%). According to the study, bank transfer transfer to the account is most often sent to housewives (67.5%of all people surveyed), pensioners (57.7%) are the most active users of mail, and online payment systems are most popular among people with disabilities (52.7%). The conclusions of this review are based on the results of a survey carried out by order of Western Union on January 18–28, 2013 on a representative sample of the population of Russia aged 18 years and older. In total, 1601 people in eight federal districts were interviewed. The survey was conducted by the Levada Center.