OREANDA-NEWS. July 24, 2014. An urgent money transfer can now be made through the Forsage service to anywhere in Russia and beyond, including CIS countries – Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – and Georgia from any of the more than 25,000 offices of the Post of Russia in all cities and large rural communities in this country.

Recipients can collect the money transferred within a few minutes at 6,000 points in CIS countries and in Georgia. The number of Forsage service points outside Russia is scheduled to rise to 14,000 before the end of this year.

Spokespersons of Sviaz-Bank’s (Vnesheconombank Group) BLIZKO Payment System and the Post of Russia told representatives of CIS countries’ embassies and migrant, financial, and banking communities about the Forsage money transfer service at a round table called to mark the event. The round table participants spoke about different aspects of cooperation between Russian government organizations on the money transfer and payment market against the background of the ongoing changes in the Russian banking system.

Vladimir Salakhutdinov, Deputy General Director, FSUE Post of Russia, spoke briefly about the Forsage project: “A money transfer can now be made through the Forsage service to any point in Russia and in CIS countries as well. This is an opportunity we have gained though cooperation with Sviaz-Bank’s BLIZKO Payment System of offices that send and pay cash transferred through the Forsage money transfer service.”

The round table moderator, Andrei Laikov, chief executive officer of the BLIZKO Payment System, said that the money transfer business had been making significantly lower profits since 2009 because of aggressive price cutting by some players in the money transfer market. “As a result, some payment systems ran into problems, and reliability and trust have become a critical factor to a customer faced with the choice of a system to send money to his relations,” he said. Now is, therefore, the time to offer a novel solution that does not raise doubts about its reliability on the money transfer market.

“Over 80% of all money transfers from Russia are made to CIS countries. The average amount of a single transfer to CIS countries is 300 dollars,” said Alma Obayeva, Chair, Management Board, National Banking Council Noncommercial Partnership.

Maintaining security of transfer transactions is one of the major goals pursued by payment systems. “Unlike bank deposits, money transfers are not covered by insurance, and here is where reliability of a payment system comes first,” said Muhammad Egamzod, First Secretary of Tajikistan’s Embassy in Russia. “State-owned banks are more reliable players in the transfer market than private banks that lack outside support. Given the enormous social significance of this service, it is reassuring news that the joint BLIZKO-Forsage project has entered the market,” Muhammadjon Atabayev, Director, Retail Business Department, Khamcorbank Commercial Bank, believes.

In the view of Pavel Nefidov, General Director, CIS Finance and Banking Council, the alliance of the Post and Sviaz-Bank is surety of a moderate interest rate policy, reliability, and trust in major state players.

‘The Romir research holding company found that a money transfer transaction takes an average five to ten minutes, while it is completed within three minutes at offices of the Post of Russia,” said Andrei Yemelin, Chairman of the National Financial Market Council. “I am certain that the alliance of two powerful players, the Post of Russia and Sviaz-Bank, will have a great future, to the benefit of, above all, customers of money transfer services.”