The appearance of the metropolitan Underground changes from year to year. And this is not only an updated design and improved functionality of the Moscow metro stations. Recently, new payment terminals belonging to VTB Bank have taken the place of the usual SB ATMs. There are three times more of them than green predecessors.
For a metro passenger, having a conveniently located ATM is as necessary as for a shopper in a supermarket. And equipped with CCTV cameras, the subway makes payment terminals safer to use than those located on the street.
History of the issue
For the first time, banks were offered to “go down to the metro station” on tender terms in 2012. By that time, 182 metro stations were equipped with 305 self-service devices. Their affiliation was as follows: 94 - Bank of Moscow, 58 - Rosbank, 53 - Sberbank. Upon expiration of the terms of agreements for the placement and operation of ATMs with Rosbank and the Bank of Moscow, they were not prolonged. Sberbank, which has been placing its ATMs in the Moscow metro for 10 years, has renewed its cooperation with the metro every year. Ten years later, the situation changed in connection with the reconstruction of the metro started by the authorities of the capital. Design solutions for lobbies and under-street passages were developed, retail and vending trade was streamlined, etc. The Moscow Consumer Market Department has approved a new layout of non-stationary facilities, which include banking and postal machines. In 2014, the Moscow Metro put up the vacant places for the placement of ATMs for auction.
The first tender for the installation of 103 ATMs was won by Sberbank. The cost of the contract, which amounted to almost 150 million rubles, the bank paid for the lease within three years, becoming one of the main contractors of transport companies. Unexpectedly for everyone, the financial institution refused to participate in the new auction, despite the fact that Sberbank is a recognized leader in the ATM network maintenance market. In the fall of 2017, in just a few days, 103 ATMs with the logo of the country's largest state bank were dismantled in the Moscow metro by ISK Optmashstroy LLC. Sberbank refrains from evaluating the financial result of cooperation with the metro. For reference: the share of underground self-service devices accounted for 4% of the entire metropolitan network of green ATMs. The reason for the decision to give place to another bank, announced by the SB press center, is the prohibitively high rent: "the price for renting each place for an ATM has changed significantly." The SB leadership claims that in the future it will participate in tenders for the placement of ATM networks in the Moscow metro, but on different conditions.
In the meantime, users of the underground transport complex of the capital have 365 payment terminals at the disposal of the current winner of state purchases - Vneshtorgbank.
Efficiency of using ATM of Vneshtorgbank
Statistics show that since the beginning of 2018, through Vneshtorgbank ATMs, passengers of the Moscow Metro have performed about 1 million transactions totaling over 8 billion rubles. This is half more than in the comparable period last year.
VTB Senior Vice President Miguel Markaryants notes that ATMs placed by the bank in the Moscow underground transport complex account for a quarter of the annual volume of transactions with individual cards. Therefore, the credit institution is interested in improving banking services in the Moscow metro.
The simple and convenient ATM interface of Vneshtorgbank makes the payment service more accessible to users. The client makes a banking operation quickly, making the minimum number of clicks. This is facilitated by reading the QR code on the payment document. As a result, the volume of monthly transactions increased by almost 60%
- The range of card services that can be obtained using VTB self-service devices has been expanded - there are more than 200 of them. These are various transfers, payment for parking and "letters of happiness" from the traffic police, payments for housing and communal services, Internet and digital TV, repayment of loans and tax obligations, purchase of tickets by train or plane and much more.
- The period of operation of the equipment without interruption for collection of funds has been increased - the new devices are equipped with the function of “closed cash circulation”. The average number of operations per ATM increased to 5000.
- Due to the fact that plastic card holders are in demand for the possibility of commission-free replenishment of the Troika card in non-cash mode, additional ATMs with the function of recording transactions on transport cards are installed in the station lobbies. By replenishing their e-wallet, passengers have already credited over 7 million rubles to their Troika cards.
- In addition to passengers, subway employees use ATM services, since VTB is a payroll bank for them. According to experts, it is the presence of a payroll project that makes the maintenance of a network of ATMs in the metro economically viable for a credit institution.
It is still difficult to assess how profitable this project is for VTB. Experts do not exclude that the bank's interest in the metro has an image component. But this is nothing more than an opinion. The credit institution has won three tenders for the placement of ATMs in the underground transport complex of Moscow. In 2015, VTB managed to win the competition for the installation of 124 payment terminals in the Moscow metro. On September 12, 2017, the bank won the auction again and installed 94 ATMs at 65 stations. The right to place another 107 ATMs was acquired by Vneshtorgbank at the auction held in March 2018.
In addition to the fact that VTB is a salary bank for the Moscow metro, it provides services to passengers for replenishment through the terminals of Troika transport cards, its scope of activities includes the implementation of an acquiring project for non-cash payment of metro fares. On the last issue, VTB's interests again intersected with Sberbank. Until recently, both credit institutions were equalizers at the turnstiles of 56 stations (16 and 40, respectively). Now the equipment of Sberbank is being dismantled, since in July 2018 VTB won the tender of the Moscow metro to provide contactless fare payments at all operating stations of the Moscow metro. With an initial contract price of 88.9 million rubles. its cost was 50 million.
Thus, today Vneshtorgbank can be recognized as a kind of monopoly of payment services for passengers of the Moscow underground transport complex. The term for placing VTB self-service devices at the stations of the Moscow metro, the number of which is currently 365, expires in 5 years. Vneshtorgbank will be an acquirer at the turnstiles of all 215 Moscow metro stations until the end of 2021.
