Ingenico, the largest supplier of terminals for accepting bank cards, will consider leaving Russia
Source：RBC
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Moscow
Update Time：2023/02/12
What alternatives can Russian banks find devices from the French manufacturer?
Ingenico is the largest supplier of payment terminals in Russia. The company owns 50% of all terminals in the country. Media reports that Ingenico plans to withdraw from Russia on March 1st, 2023.
Ingenico is an international company headquartered in France. It has been operating in Russia since 2007, its Russian subsidiary is Ingeniko LLC. Now on the official website of Ingenico Russia is not in the list of countries where the company's office operates. A representative of the global office told RBC that Ingenico transferred 100% of the shares of Ingeniko LLC in June 2022, therefore, it can no longer comment on information about the Russian business. A spokesman for the company did not did not specify the details of the transaction.
According to the Bank of Russia, at the end of the third quarter of 2022, about 4 million POS terminals were installed in Russia. Ingenico itself at the beginning of 2018 reported that 1.5 million of its POS terminals were produced in Russia (in 2019, the company closed production in the country and moved it to Vietnam).
Two RBC sources who know about the timing of the company's departure from Russia say that Ingenico devices occupy the main share in the network of POS terminals of Sberbank, VTB and Promsvyazbank. Promsvyazbank did not answer the question about the share of devices. But Nikita Khomutov, Vice-President, Acquiring Director of Promsvyazbank, noted that PSB works successfully," Khomutov said.
Ingenico's Intentions
According to RBC, five experts of the payment market are aware of the possible departure. So far, only plans are being discussed. There may not be a withdrawal, but experts believe it is extremely likely. A few years ago, the company moved the production of terminals from Russia to Vietnam. Then Ingenico sold the Russian share to a subsidiary of LLC Ingenico.
The Russian representative did not comment on the information about Ingenico's departure. Now on the Ingenico website, Russia is not in the list of countries where there is an official representative office. The current contracts with Ingenico are valid until February 15. The journalists discovered that the liquidator company Ingenico appeared in the register of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
What can leaving Russia lead to
Almost all terminals of Sberbank, VTB and Promsvyazbank are Ingenico products. Experts do not know whether it will be possible to service the terminals after the company leaves. To clarify, terminals need to be constantly repaired, replaced and updated with their software. There is a high probability that banks will have to look for new terminal suppliers and replace existing ones with new ones.
Is there a way out
The best option is to switch to terminals from China and other Asian countries. If agreed, they can be imported and updated without restrictions.
Even in this scenario, Russian banks will face problems. The fact is that it is impossible to get rid of millions of terminals and replace them with new ones. It is possible that terminals will be unavailable somewhere, and users will have to pay in cash.
Source: https://www.rbc.ru/finances/25/01/2023/63cebaff9a7947944af54336?ysclid=ldctf9cz89379774473