CONTACT, the international money order system, announced it introduced 157 new terminals within just the first half of June. SKB-Bank’s Commission Services Director Lyudmila Belyaeva believes this means that this service has been enjoying great demand lately.

'Money orders are becoming increasingly popular. People are making more cash transfers both in the country on the whole and with the help of SKB-Bank in particular. The systems are trying to meet the demand and win their customers over by making more favorable offers on tariffs, introducing new services, and expanding geographically,’ Ms Belyaeva says.

'Western Union, for example, has recently made money orders within Russia and from Russia to Byelorussia or Tajikistan cheaper, hoping primarily to attract migrant workers, who largely use the service here. At the same time, Western Union is still finding it difficult to compete with CONTACT, as the latter only charges 2% of the amount you have transferred within Russia and 3% of the sum (in rubles, dollars, or euros) you want to send anywhere abroad. CONTACT is trying to entice migrant workers by expanding its office network in the NIS (that is, in the Ukraine, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and some other countries).’

'Summer is traditionally a high season for guest workers, with citizens of the former Soviet republics coming to make money in Russia. I wouldn’t be surprised if both the banks and money order systems came up with something nice and interesting for them soon,’ Ms Belyaeva observed.