OREANDA-NEWS. August 24, 2016. ABH Holdings S.A. announced the launch of the Alfa-World online transfer platform. The new service has already become available in Russia and Belarus.

Alfa-World is the first service of instant international online banking transfers between Alfa-Bank retail clients in different countries. This service enables clients to make transfers with fewer bank details and instant crediting of the funds. Either the phone or card number is enough for making the transfer, while a commission fee of at least 1% will be charged for a transfer. The funds can be converted into four currencies.

This is a unique service for the CIS banking market.

"Alfa-World is another example of Alfa-Bank’s efficiency as an international financial institution. Trans-border transfers are a service sought by Alfa-Bank clients in all countries of its presence, and we have created the most convenient service for those who chose Alfa-Bank in Russia and Belarus. The project bolsters synergy of close interaction between Alfa-Bank entities in Russia and Belarus in the field of syndicated and corporate lending, financing and development of bilateral trade and transaction business," Polina Ilyna, Business Development Director, said in her commentary.

"The IT sets the goal of maximal use of expertise, culture and technologies of all ABHH banks for creating technologically advanced services. The Alfa-World project ventures beyond these boundaries — a unified platform for interaction between the banks has been created for developing future inter-bank services. The platform incorporates prospective areas in the development of corporate architectures, complies with the ideology of application eco-system and meets security requirements, so we can eventually offer convenient and popular services to Alfa-Bank clients in any country of its presence. Teams of Alfa-Bank (Russia) and Alfa-Bank (Belarus) have accomplished a lot: they created not just a popular service but also laid a foundation for further progress," Martin Pileсky, Head of IT of Alfa-Bank (Russia), said.

The bank expects the new service to become very popular, given the upward trend in money transfers between retail clients in Belarus and Russia. According to the Russian Central Bank, trans-border transfers from Russia to Belarus were equivalent to \\$230 million, while transfers from Belarus to Russia amounted to \\$122 million. An average transfer from Russia to Belarus was equivalent to \\$273, and from Belarus to Russia — \\$402. As many as \\$11 058 million were transferred from Russia to the CIS, including \\$1 996 million (18.05%) transferred to Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus. Total of \\$3 873 million were transferred to Russia from CIS countries, including \\$2 000 million (51.6%) from Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Ukraine.