TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, December 12. Uzbekistan has entered the top 5 in terms of the number of transfers using the Russian VTB Bank, Trend reports.
The statistics were revealed by VTB Deputy Head Georgy Gorshkov during the Russia Calling Investment Forum held in Moscow.
In the period spanning January to November, the bank witnessed a substantial surge in cross-border transactions by its retail customers, registering a notable fivefold increase compared to the same timeframe in 2022, totaling 275,000 transactions.
Tajikistan claimed the top spot for the highest number of transfers denominated in foreign currencies, with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan following closely to complete the top 5 rankings.
Phone number-based transfers emerged as the preferred method for most international transactions, constituting 72 percent of the total volume by the end of November. Transfers to cards of national payment systems held the second position, comprising 18 percent of the overall transactions.
Moreover, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Armenia emerged as leaders in the cross-border transfer landscape, contributing a cumulative amount of 36 billion rubles ($396,563) over the eleven months of 2023. VTB forecasts this figure to surpass 40 billion rubles ($440,625) by year-end, marking a fourfold increase from the previous year.
Looking ahead to 2024, VTB anticipates continued growth in cross-border transfers, attributing this to the expansion of available destinations. The bank's projections suggest that these transfers will triple in comparison to 2021, reaching a sum of 200 billion rubles ($2.2 million).
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan’s Republican Currency Exchange (UzRVB) has launched a new project aimed at automating the process of forming and transferring financial documents for transactions concluded on the REPO market of government securities (GS).
The innovation is said to facilitate the decision-making process on the part of the bank, increase the speed of transactions, and reduce the risk of errors when transferring money.
The volume of transactions amounted to 44.86 trillion soums ($3.68 billion) as of October 1, 2023, with an increase of 24 times relative to the final indicators of the first quarter of the year.
