VTB Expands Phone-Number Based, International Financial Transfer Retail Services

Russia’s VTB bank has launched phone number-based transfers to Azerbaijan, in moves that circumnavigate the financial sanctions placed on Russian banks using the SWIFT financial transfer service. Russian retail clients can now instantly send money to Azerbaijan using the recipient’s phone number to clients of the subsidiary bank – VTB Azerbaijan.

The transfer is made from a Ruble account and the funds will be instantly credited to the recipient’s account opened with VTB Azerbaijan in Azerbaijan’s national currency, the Manat. The transfer fee is 0.5% (minimum 30 rubles), while clients can transfer up to ₽300,000 (USD3,670) in each transaction. The service is available to users via internet banking and the VTB Online mobile app for Android smartphones.

Alexei Khranilov, the head of the transfers department at VTB’s Retail Transactional Business Division said “Seventy percent of our retail clients choose phone number-based transfers to send money abroad because it is fast and simple. Understanding how much users are interested in this method of transactions we are expanding our horizons to Azerbaijan.”

Russians can also send phone number-based transfers to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, China, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

In 2024, VTB’s retail clients made 2.1 million transfers to friendly countries’ currencies, up sixfold compared to 2023. The largest share in terms of volume and number of transactions was held by transfers to Tajikistan, China, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.