Russia’s Yandex.Money’s E-Wallet Goes Multi-Currency

Yandex.Money, the largest online payments services in Russia, has introduced a new service for multi-currency accounts and cards. In addition to rubles, the service allows users to keep money and pay in 10 foreign currencies: US dollars, euros, British pounds, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, Swiss francs, Czech korunas, Polish zloty, Belarusian rubles, and Kazakhstani tenges. Users won’t have to switch currencies in order to pay for a purchase abroad with the card, as the service will independently determine which one to use for the payment, allowing for convenient and favorable payments in different countries with one Yandex.Money card, the company said in its announcement.

At first, the new service will be available to a limited number of users: those who would like to be a part of the test group will need to submit an application

“We expect the Yandex.Money multi-currency cards to be popular with a wide variety of users,” said Alla Savchenko, director of products at Yandex.Money.. “People residing or vacationing abroad will feel comfortable in any country, saving on currency conversion and not wasting time on switching between accounts. Users who want to save money can earn cashback for paying for purchases from the account of any currencies available from the service. Further on, freelancers will be able to receive earnings in foreign currency from foreign clients in the usual manner, to e-wallets,” she added.

Yandex.Money serves 46 million registered wallets and around 800,000 thousand physical cards and 17 million virtual cards on the Mastercard payment system. Physical Yandex.Money cards can be used for online and offline payments, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and Garmin Pay support, as well as for cash withdrawal both in Russia and abroad. Identified users can withdraw money without a commission at any ATMs around the world within the limit set by the service.

Yandex.Money elected to leverage Moven Enterprise’s APIs and embed them into their existing platform to deliver a highly personalized smart banking experience to their customers.

Yandex.Money said the partnership provides its 46 million users with a real-time personalized financial experience (PFE) service in their e-wallet mobile app.

The company is the joint venture of the search engine Yandex and Sberbank. It said that “Yandex.Money’s service provides users with contextual personalized advice as part of the e-wallet mobile app experience. Analyzing the expenses on a daily basis, the service allows users to track their spending in real time, while reducing spending and increasing savings—all to drive financial wellness and good financial habits.”

About Tom Groenfeldt

I write - mostly about finance and technology, sometimes about art, occasionally about politics and the intersection of politics and economics. My work appears on Forbes.com and and occasionally in The American Banker and Banking Technology in London.
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