Kommersant - Vlast (Moscow) - April 21, 2008

RBC holding acquires 20 percent of shares in the Rupay e-payment system. The system was launched in 2002 and accounts for roughly 5 percent of the electronic payments market with a turnover of about $19bn. It provides services to over 200,000 people in Russia and the CIS. The system can be used not only to purchase products in 6,000 different online stores, but also to pay for communication, housing and utilities services. RBC is poised to create its own payment system – RBK Money – on the basis of Rupay (in which it plans to increase its stake to 51 percent). The new system will operate through RBK Bank. It is important to point out that the company chose a good time for the acquisition. The average annual growth of the Russian electronic payment systems market amounted to 119 percent over the last three years. With this in mind, Rupay, with RBC’s support, has great potential for becoming one of the key players on this market and competing with the largest e-payment systems, such as WebMoney and Yandex.Money. According to Chairman of RBC’s Board of Directors German Kaplun, Rupay will also offer “innovative banking products,” by extending the services beyond the Internet.