A number of countries neighboring Russia have started accepting payments via SBP from Russia this year - not only Belarus, but also Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. More than 35 foreign banks in these CIS countries are already connected to the service, and more than five Russian banks offer the possibility to send money to them via SBP.
The service, according to experts, is in demand not only among labor migrants, but also among relocants who, after leaving, continue to work remotely in Russia and receive income in rubles. Cross-border currency transfers are also used by those Russians who, after the blocking of SWIFT, opened accounts in CIS countries in order to pay abroad. Therefore, the number of banks that want to work with SBP both in Russia and abroad will grow.
The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development calculated the demand for such a service in a clear calculation. According to their data, cross-border transfers from clients to CIS countries from August to October of this year increased by 1.6 times compared to the period from January to July of the same year.