YEREVAN, October 20. /ARKA/. Armenia is one of the most popular international money transfer destinations for Russians, according to Russian Business Consulting (RBC), which cited data from VTB and Tinkoff Bank.
VTB customers effected over 7 thousand money transfers to the ‘friendly countries’ to the tune of 2.1 billion rubles from September 15th till October 15th. These figures are one-third higher in number and two times higher in volume when compared to the period from August 15th till September 15th.
The bulk of money transfers made by Russian citizens were sent to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia. Since the beginning of the autumn VTB has recorded a total of 13 thousand money transfers to the CIS countries amounting to more than 6.3 billion rubles.
“After the surge in late September – early October, the demand for money transfers to the former Soviet republics has stabilized and is now at the level of average September,” said Alexei Hranilov, Head of the Money Transfers Department at f VTB Bank.
Tinkoff Bank also recorded an increase in the number and volume of money transfers to neighboring countries at the end of September.
“Money transfers service by phone number to the former Soviet republics from Tinkoff is in demand by non-resident users; at the end of September we saw an increase in demand also from the residents of Russia,” said the representative of the bank, adding that the most popular countries were Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
The volume trans-border money transfers has been growing for the last six months, said the representative of the MTS Money service. He didn’t name exact figures, but explained that the most popular destinations were Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Armenia.
The net inflow of private money transfers to Armenia in the first half of 2022 amounted to over $978.9 million, with a 2.56-fold increase compared to the first half of 2021, according to the Central Bank of Armenia.
Money transfers from Russia prevailed. In the first half of the year nearly $917.5 million were remitted to Armenia, almost a five-fold rise compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Net inflows of money transfers from the U.S. came close to $187.6 million, up from $167.8 million in January-June 2021. However, the share of money transfers from the USA fell to 19.2% in the total inflow from 43.8% a year earlier. –0–
