Overnight Yuan Exchange, VEON to Close Deal to Sell VimpelCom in October – Top Things on September 14

Finance

• Uralsib Bank has joined the Sber Pay QR service, whose customers will now be able to pay for purchases in offline stores using Sber QR codes.

• Tinkoff Bank plans to launch overnight foreign exchange operations in yuan. Legal entities will be able to place Chinese currency at interest daily through the exchange infrastructure.
• 47% of freelancers in Russia intend to increase the cost of their services by the end of 2023, one in five – by between 20 and 30%. In most cases, the highest incomes for self-employed workers are offered in the field of retail trade, IT, logistics, public and business services.
• Qiwi Uzbekistan has suspended international transfers due to restrictions from the Central Bank of the Republic. The company sent queries to the local regulator, but never received a response.

Business

• The cost of advertising in the field of e-commerce will increase by 80% by the end of the year due to the drop in demand for increasingly expensive foreign products, as well as the emergence of the VK Ads platform, Kommersant reported.
• The Dutch holding VEON plans to close the sale agreement for VimpelCom (Beeline brand) before October 13. The deal was scheduled to close on June 1, but the government commission had doubts about the agreements with the holding company’s Russian bondholders.

Services and technologies

• Russian hosting providers note a recovery in demand for renting computing power from foreign clients, Kommersant writes.

Transport

• Sovcombank Insurance refused to sell MTPL policies through agent and brokerage channels. The decision was made thanks to high commissions from counterparties, Kommersant reports.