Citi reports increased popularity of e-payments among Russian customers

Russian ZAO KB Citibank reports that an average growth of customers using remote access to pay their utility bills accounts for 13% a month. The number of such customers increased three times within 10 months of 2008. Speed, simplicity and accessibility are main factors that drive them to use e-payment channels.

Most popular category of payment is mobile phone services with 79% of all payments made to mobile operators. 11% of remote payments are made for utilities while 7% and 3% are made for Internet+TV and Landline telephone respectively. The report shows that 43% of Citibank’s clients use the Internet to pay their bills with 52% of payers however choosing ATM payments which is explained by the convenience and an unhurried environment.

Interestingly, the majority of payments are made on workdays. 17% of customers pay on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while on Tuesdays and Thursdays this figure accounts for 16% and 15% respectively. On Saturdays and Sundays the number of customers making their payments with any electronic means is 10% and 8%.

While the largest number of payments and the largest average amount falls at Moscow with 75% and $24 respectively other large towns in the country are experiencing faster growth in use of these services. Volgograd shows 36% growth, followed by Nizhniy Novgorod with 35%, Samara and Rostov-na-Don with 27%, Yekaterinburg with 26% and St.-Petersburg with 24%. Since the beginning of 2008 the total number of customers who performed two or more transactions per month using electronic means increased from 7.8% to 14.3%.