It’s been over two weeks since the Bank of Russia limited to acquiring a Commission per online trade. It was assumed that the decrease will be compensated by sales growth. However, the banks did not watch, noting the bursts only for certain categories. But they note that to the end user reducing the fee is not reached, rather the contrary — in response to the decline in revenue, the bankers just canceled cashback.From 15 April, the Bank of Russia limited to acquiring the Commission that banks can take from the online stores for online purchases until September 30, it will not exceed 1%. While banks do not see significant increase in activity on a wide range of products, selecting only certain categories. In VTB say that the growth of online trading in the second half of April were generally lower than in the first half of April, although higher than in late March. In Gazprombank estimates that in April compared to March, the increase in the share of Internet trading in the total volume of purchases amounted to only 4 percentage points, reaching 22%. “Customers shifted their consumption, increasing the share of purchases at supermarkets and pharmacies,” said the Bank.According to estimates of the Bank “Russian standard” in the last two weeks of April, the highest increase among paid cards products showed wear. The growth of Internet sales in this category increased by 38% compared to the first two weeks of April. Sales of consumer goods grew by 30%, and electronics and communications, only 8%. VTB also noted the increase in clothing sales. “In this case, most likely, played the role of seasonality and the lack of alternatives to the online shopping malls are closed”,— explained in the Bank. According to the Director of the processing company “Multicarta” Kirill Sviridenko, “our customer banks, a decrease in the number of transactions in the range of 20% to the online stores that sells electronics (TVs, radio, stereos) and smartphones, but the noticeable increase in demand for large household appliances (refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners etc) — 17%”.Bankers say that the restriction of the acquiring fee has not affected the demand in the online stores. “Cost reduction for noncash transactions, obviously, was not translated in the prices of goods and, therefore, not create additional motivation for people to buy more. Even if it will happen, it is unlikely that the discount of 1% is a strong reason for consumers to increase spending,”— said in VTB. In Gazprombank agrees that in terms of acquiring services organizations change in tariffs has not led to a change in the structure of the speed or dynamics, as these tariff adjustments did not affect rates of enterprises and, as a consequence, the cost of their customers.Moreover, the customers of the Internet stores the situation worsened. “The regulator, significantly reducing acquiring a Commission, went to meet the final customers for lower prices in Internet Commerce. After the regulator the value of interchange fees has reduced the payment system. Under these conditions, the Bank is forced to cancel the accrual of cashback for such operations”,— stated in Gazprombank.The banks themselves is down slightly. As noted by the Director of the Department acquiring Bank “Opening” Alexander Dynin, “income of the acquirer has not changed, and the Commission of the Issuer has decreased to a negligibly small value”.In addition, adds the President of AKITA Artem Sokolov, the adjustment of the fee does not cover the infrastructure for Internet trading, that is, the company does not receive a reduced rate if payment is made in case of courier delivery or collection point, which now exceeds 70%. Under the adjustment also did not hit home goods, sporting goods, books, furniture, furs, furniture, electronics and appliances is a limit of 20 thousand rubles., said Mr. Sokolov.However, the forecasts of the bankers are also not very optimistic. According to them, in General, acquiring the situation is complicated due to the decline in consumer activity in offline trade due to the imposition of restrictive measures against the coronavirus. And on the online trade there is not much hope because growth is noted mostly in those categories in which the restrictions on commissions, and therefore, the income is minimal.Maxim Builov
