The share of payments and other commission products in the turnover of the leading retail banks can reach 30%. With the growth of the Internet audience and the popularity of e-money, this area can show significant growth. How to keep up with the global trend? UNISTREAM is one of the first money transfer systems in Russia and the CIS that mastered the new area by creating the UNISTREAM MONEY Electronic Wallet. It enables the customers to have access to payments in favor of more than 500 providers. President of UNISTREAM Bank Suren AYRIYAN told NBJ why UNISTREAM would need a new electronic money and payments market and how the Electronic Wallet would change the lives of the customers.

NBJ: Having launched an Electronic Wallet, UNISTREAM has gone beyond the money transfer market. Why would a suc­cessful system need that?

S. AYRIYAN: Such are the demands of the consumers and the business today. The payments market, including money transfers and e-commerce is developing at a fast pace, and boundaries between them are gradually disappearing. The reason is that the consumers and their needs are changing. First, they want to get more services in one place: to transfer money, pay for mobile service, utility bills, etc. And we can expect that such service model will be in demand both today and in the future.

Second, consumers are spending more time online and are increasingly using their mobile devices. They want access to financial services when they need, sometimes immediately - this has become possible with the development of online and mobile technologies.

Third, the barrier to conducting financial transactions through remote channels, including Internet is vanishing. Although Russia still remains the "country of cash" in the big cities people are more and more likely to buy online, and are less eager to make payments in cash only. There is no longer a rigid connection of "banking service - brick and mortar office - banking consultant". Today the customers expect 24/7 access to financial services on any platform. Such approach to the organization of banking services is especially relevant when it comes to transactional banking products, such as payments and money transfers, where speed and simplicity of transactions are important, as well as a wide range of payment recipients.

Current trends oblige us to provide our customers with the full range of payment services in a format our customers expect from us. UNISTREAM is now focused on the development of an entire range of remote channels - terminals, online payment technologies, including electronic money which recently became part of banking services after the Law "On the National Payment System" came into effect. Thus the electronic money has become a new trend in the development of retail banking products. Taking into account these trends, UNISTREAM is introducing new generation of payment service based on the remote channels and UNISTREAM MONEY platform.

As to the current market trends, it should be mentioned that the price wars resulted in lower margins both for the operators of the money transfers systems, and for the participants. At the same time, commission service (payments, transfers, and other) is still an attractive business. But to be profitable, this business should be organized with the highest level of costs control, which is ensured by the new UNISTREAM MONEY platform.

NBJ: Why electronic money?

S. AYRIYAN: We see that millions of people use electronic money around the world. Why do they do it? Because it is convenient, they don't have to spend time trying to understand how the system works. Electronic money as a concept of a payment system is consumer-friendly. People can use electronic money systems intuitively, because they carry less banking specific information. What is the traditional Internet banking system like? Let us remember that in our market it was originally designed as a remote service system for business clients and functionally, it automates bank account transactions within a banking day. Consumers think differently: they make payments and transfers in favor of organizations and other individuals and they would prefer not to make efforts understanding how the system of transactions between bank accounts is organized. Electronic money systems have become popular due to the possibility of direct payments at any time anywhere. Such systems are ergonomic and user-friendly. Creating such a system was our goal when we designed Electronic Wallet UNISTREAM MONEY.

NBJ: How does UNISTREAM MONEY Electronic Wallet work?

S. AYRIYAN: The customer signs up on the UNISTREAM site and gets access to a personal UNISTREAM MONEY account where he can pay for the services of a wide range of providers: mobile and Internet service operators, utilities and many other service providers. Currently UNISTREAM MONEY Electronic Wallet can be topped-up at more than three thousand UNISTREAM locations in Russia. By the end of the year this number will increase up to ten thousand service points.

NBJ: Let's go back to consumers and the system usability and adoption. We do understand that the Internet connection is not available to many Russians. Do you think the Electronic Wallet and electronic money system will be easily adopted by your current customers for transfers, payments and other services?

S. AYRIYAN: According to some sources, the penetration of the Internet in Russia is just over 40% on the average, which may seem not a big figure. However, this means that at least one in three Russians is an Internet user. In Moscow, the share of Internet users is already more than 70%. In other cities with more than 1 mln population the internet audience is growing rapidly and may soon reach the European level, where in some countries, such as Germany, access to Internet has been recently included in the list of basic human rights. Soon the Russian cities with more than one hundred thousand population will catch up with the level of Internet penetration of the major cities. If the process continues at the same pace, it may happen within the next three years.

It's important to mention, that as soon as consumers get access to the Internet, they tend to spend more and more time online. And now more than ever they use their mobile device for Internet access. According to the global statistics, last year the sales of smartphones exceeded the sales of ordinary mobile phones. We see the same trend in Russia, and there's an increasing share of budget smartphones. For the economy segment audience where there are many migrant workers, buying a laptop is a significant expense. There­fore, mobile Internet via smartphone is a real opportunity to get access to Internet content and online services, which would have been otherwise unavailable to this type of customers. Catching this trend, mobile providers are already seeking to offer mobile Internet in a package with in-expensive smartphones at a price less than two thousand rubles. Add to it the growing share of tablets, including the budget ones. Thus, we can expect that those who are not online yet, will be there via their mobile devices very soon. Accordingly, the audience that has a need for online services, including payment and other financial services, will be growing rapidly.