House of cards. In Russian

By the end of May, the Central Bank can announce which platform the national payment system will be created - the replacement of Visa and Mastercard

The Golden Crown card is still in need of advertising. Moscow, 2013 /Photo: Vladimir Filonov /Fotodom

On April 16, after a closed meeting in the government where the project of the National Payment System was discussed, the President of VTB24 Bank Mikhail Zadornov announced that the technology and development of the Universal Electronic Card of Sberbank and the “Golden Crown” of the Novosibirsk Financial Technology Center (CFT) will be used to create it.

According to the sources of The New Times in banking circles, the Golden Crown seems to be won the treasured prize and become the main plastic of the country. Now she works mainly in Siberia and in the Far East - local enterprises transfer the salaries of their employees to her cards.

In the CFT itself, they do not give comments. PR specialist of the Center Kirill Gorelov said that “the company does not want to disturb the information space. We cannot comment on what our partners from VISA international payment systems, Chinaunionpay and Mastercard, with which we have common projects. ”

But the source of The New Times in the TsFT explained that the cause of silence is different: negotiations with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance are in full swing. The decision of the Central Bank, according to the source, will be announced in the very near future-one and a half or two weeks of the maximum.

How "crown" works

The financial technology center in 1991 was founded by a group of graduates of the University of Novosibirsk - Alexander Sogudin, Igor Potashnikov, Andrei Visheshchev. All three to this day work in the company. Initially, they were engaged in the development of software for banks. The Golden Crown payment system was created by the Central Executive Committee later - in 1994. As a strategic partner, one of the leaders in the development of database management systems was chosen - Oracle Corporation, with which the issuance of bank cards began.

In the zero CFT, he opened his processing center, launched the Social Card project (on them, Novosibirsk pensioners could buy preferential medicines, pay utility bills, etc.), in 2004 they concluded an agreement with MasterCard and began to produce cobrand cards.

The company quickly grew up, the Golden Crown cards became popular not only in Novosibirsk (about 17% of organizations that work in the city with non -cash calculation use this system), but also in other cities of Siberia and the Far East - Irkutsk, Novokuznetsk, Omsk, Orenburg, etc.

The Golden Crown payment system today unites about 220 banks of Russia and the CIS countries. Her card is accepted by 34 thousand ATMs (for Sberbank, for comparison-49 thousand) and about 120 thousand sales points-POS terminals.

The revenue of the CFT for 2012 amounted to 3.8 billion rubles, net profit - 1.3 billion rubles.

The New Times found several “Golden Crown” clients: we were interested in why the name was chosen “crown” and how convenient it is to use it.

"

“There are only five grocery stores in the village. Two of them accept my card "

"

24-year-old sales manager of Planet shopping center Andrei Ryazanov from the town of Surok (he is located 30 km from the capital of the Republic of Mari El-Yoshkar-Ola), said that he received the card in 2011 in the Euroset store, where he went to pay for his cell phone-the store staff invited him to issue a card for free. “It was important for me that no annual service fee. It is also convenient that the card is valid until 2020, it is not necessary to change it, ”says Ryazanov. Among his acquaintances, many take loans on the “Golden Crown” cards - from 3 to 50 thousand rubles. The rate is from 24% per annum.

The main feature, according to Ryazanov, is that the bank charges points for each purchase made in stores that serve the card is about 1.5% of the spent on funds. You can then buy something for these points in the same stores.

“My family lives in the village, this is another 30 km from the groundhog,” says Ryazanov. - There are only five grocery stores. Two of them accept my card. One thing is bad - you can put money on the card only in a march, in the village there is no branch of the bank that serves it, nor ATMs. ” Andrei does not go abroad, but making purchases in foreign online stores. He tied his card to the PayPal electronic money operator (this is easily done on the Internet) and now orders “all sorts of trinkets” for his wife and child at ebay auctions.

The New Times correspondent called the Golden Crown Information Center and, introducing himself as a potential client, asked if this card can be used abroad “Our card is valid only in Russia and in the CIS countries,” said the operator Maria.

Anastasia Loday-ool from Tuva several times received a translation through the Golden Crown system from her husband, who is now in Tajikistan. In Kyzyl, there are only two points where you can get and send a translation through this system. “I have only negative emotions from these operations,” says Anastasia. - These departments have an uncomfortable schedule and thousands of reasons not to work: there is no light, then the paper, then the specialist dines! ” However, it is possible that these are the features of Kyzyl, and not the “golden crown”.

In Moscow, CFT cards are issued by partner banks **. However, some of them recently ceased to support the Golden Crown - among them the Russian Standard and MDM Bank. Why? Do not say.

In Baikalbank, which issues these cards, the correspondent of The New Times called two tariffs. First: The cost of the card is 260 rubles, the service is free. For cashing and replenishment of the account, the commission at the ATMs of Baikalbank is 0.6%. In the bank’s office - 0.4%. The second tariff: the card is issued for free, but every year they rent 300 rubles for service, there is no replenishment and replenishment commissions - this tariff is popular among those who receive social benefits.

For comparison: in Sberbank, the cost of annual service Visa Electron - 300 rubles, Visa Classic and MasterCard Standard - 750 rubles. At the same time, there are no commissions and the card is issued for free. Alfa-Bank also does not take money for the manufacture of a card, and the monthly service of Visa or MasterCard will cost 700 rubles.

But what about it abroad - in Europe and the USA? Now the CFT offers its customers to purchase a cobranding card, that is, with two payment systems - the “Golden Crown” plus Maestro or MasterCard. For customers, this product is successful: out of 19 million cards that the Golden Crown released, cobranding amounts to more than half.

Time and money

French Carte Bleue
Japanese map JCB
Chinese Unionpay

The main question is: how will the new payment system work? Experts and analysts interviewed The New Times claim that it all depends on one factor - whether Visa and MasterCard will leave Russia or not. If you leave, then the new cards of the domestic payment system cannot be used abroad. What then to do to those who go abroad? One option: to change the rubles to the currency and take Kesh abroad (now the limit is $ 10 thousand). Second: open an account in a foreign bank, get a VISA card there and transfer money to it. The source of the magazine in the presidential administration said that this, of course, is an option from the category of Apocalypse: “The National Payment System is primarily an independence tool that is not needed in order to squeeze international players from the market, but in order to remove the threat of pressure from the country. There are their payment systems in many countries. In France, for example, local Carte Bleue cards are freely conducting operations in the MasterCard system. We can also normally combine payment systems. Just in the case of sanctions, if Visa and MasterCard will turn off some banks, citizens will still be able to use cards in Russia. ”

As examples of national payment systems, the journal’s interlocutors also provide the Japanese JCB card, she has a partnership agreement with the American Express and it is accepted in the USA, and the Chinese UnionPay, which works in more than 100 countries (she has a wide network of own ATMs). But both are still inferior to Visa and MasterCard in the geography of the distribution and the number of points where they are accepted for payment.

How will the transition to new cards technically be carried out? Firstly, a settlement center will be created in the form of a joint-stock company, 100% of the shares of which will belong to the Central Bank for the first two years-the other banks will be able to buy its shares only in two years. Secondly, infrastructure will be created-terminals in stores, etc. If international payment systems remain in Russia in order for the national card to be widespread, it should be competitive. Experts say that only profitable tariffs can captivate the consumer: for example, if the national card is cheaper than Visa and MasterCard.

Anton Arnautov, director of the Rules Publishing House, which specializes in the news for banking specialists, is well familiar with the Golden Crown system. In his opinion, to use this project as a base for the national payment system "quite real." “Today it is the strongest interbank card project, which has grown from below, from a private initiative. The most important thing is that he left the region, developed for 20 years and gradually conquered other cities, ”says Arnautov. - The creators of the Golden Crown understand the regional mentality well. This is important because the national banking system should work throughout Russia. ”

Alexander Sakharov, director of the A3 company, who previously engaged in the implementation of IT technologies in Alfa-Bank and Uralsib, did not agree with Arnaautov. In his opinion, the Golden Crown is an archaic project that has not taken into account new technologies in banking processing in the past five years. However, according to his estimates, it is quite possible to create a national payment system for six months, and it can cost quite inexpensively - within $ 10 million. In banking circles, they call a different figure - about $ 30 million. So much will be invested in the development of the national system.

The Ministry of Finance in mid -May stated that the creation of a national payment system would take 3-6 months. Few people believe in this. Oleg Vyugin, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of the Bank, in an interview with The New Times (p. 18) said that "over these six months you can report (on creating a payment system), but in order for the system with issued cards to earn a year, no less." Member of the Board of Directors of VTB Capital Sergey Dubinin is sure that, in order to grow a competitor to international networks, you need at least two years. “Even the base for stolen machines, what can we say about the nationwide financial system?” - said Dubinin.