OREANDA-NEWS. February 22, 2011. Russia’s leading online payment service Yandex.Money announced its partnership with Sberbank, the country’s largest bank. Now, the users of the Yandex.Money system can top up their accounts via Sberbank’s ATMs or payment terminals using a debit card from any Russian bank.

Sberbank has the largest branch network in the country with more than 19,100 retail outlets in 3,800 cities, about 28,000 ATMs and 17,000 payment terminals. The users of Yandex.Money can instantly top up their accounts at any of Sberbank’s cashpoints or payment outlets to pay their bills or make purchases online. Currently, this option is available only in Moscow. It will appear in Sberbank’s ATMs and payment terminals across the country over the course of this year. While the users of the system are free to choose how much money they want to put on their account at a time, the maximum single top-up amount is limited to 15,000 rubles. A 1.5% commission will be charged regardless of the client’s bank.

Sberbank’s clients can top up their Yandex.Money accounts not only via ATMs or payment terminals, but also using the bank’s mobile banking option or their online banking system Sberbank OnLine.

“Just a couple of years ago, people would use a card only to withdraw cash from an ATM. Things have changed now. Our experience working with banks tells us that people now are more willing to use their banking cards to top up their online wallets. Yandex.Money users can transfer money to their accounts at any time using the closest Sberbank ATM or payment terminal, which are on every corner in Russia,” says Natalia Khaitina, Deputy CEO of Yandex.Money.