OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2011. Sberbank has become the first Russian bank to integrate its systems with an American-based MoneyGram International global payment services company. Secure transfers from around the world are now available in more than 8,000 Sberbank branches. Transaction security is guaranteed by digital signature technology implemented jointly by CROC and Demos.

“The ability to collaborate with MoneyGram and provide access to international money transfers in our branches throughout Russia is a great accomplishment for us. Customers transfer money through Sberbank because they trust us and we have to ensure the reliability of their transactions. The use of digital signature technology that complies with Russian standards in the money transfer processing center improves the protection of transmitted messages from forgeries and falsifications and fully meets Personal Data Protection Law requirements,” said Igor Mushakov, Head IT Liaison Department, Sberbank.

“CROC developed gateway architecture to transfer digital signature protected data between MoneyGram and Sberbank. Digital signature technology—an analogue of a hand-written signature—guarantees the confidentiality of each transaction. The highly reliable telecommunication system implemented by CROC ensures fault-tolerant communications between Sberbank’s four data centers and MoneyGram via the use of the communication channels of two independent operators,” said Ivan Rubtzov, Deputy Director General for Key Accounts, CROC.

Digital signature technology utilizing Solo cryptographic equipment from Thales (previously known as nCipher nForse) was further improved by Demos in order to ensure that cross-border money transfers comply with the GOST R 34.10-2001 standard. As part of the MoneyGram integration project, Sberbank specialists also automated all accounting operations related to money transfers, including the bank’s daily settlements, with the MoneyGram system and intra-bank operations. The system was developed in compliance with personal data protection laws in all relevant countries, is completely isolated from the internet, and utilizes highly-protected equipment.