OREANDA-NEWS  9 December 2016. TCS Group Holding PLC (TCS LI) (the "Group"), Russia's leading provider of online retail financial services, including Tinkoff Bank and Tinkoff Insurance, today announces that in the coming two years it intends to launch seven development hubs across Russia. The first cities to host those will be Saint Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov and Vladivostok, to be followed by others later.

Oliver Hughes, Chairman of Tinkoff Bank's Management Board, commented: "We are growing at a fast pace and launching a host of new services as part of out Tinkoff.ru financial supermarket. To implement our ambitious plans, we need to boost our R&D capabilities. This is why we are now turning to regional centres. We hope this project will help us cut time to market for our new products."

TCS Group Holding PLC is an innovative provider of online retail financial services operating in Russia through a high-tech branchless platform. The Group has also developed a "smart courier" network covering almost all cities and towns in Russia which allows next day delivery to many customers.

Tinkoff Bank's product range includes credit, debit and prepaid cards, deposits, co-branded cards, agent-based mortgage products and investment services. With its special focus on mobile, the bank offers mobile applications both for its customer base (Mobile Bank) and beyond it (Traffic Fines, MoneyTalk, Card 2 Card instant money transfers).

As per its five-year strategy, the Group has the ambition to become a financial marketplace, offering both own brand and partner products.

As at 1 November 2016, the bank was the second largest player in the Russian credit card market, with a market share of 9.9%. The Group's 9M 2016 IFRS net income amounted to RUB 7.3 bn.