SWIFT transfers in tenge, cafes in Lime stores: the main thing on September 20

Russia

• The Ministry of Energy will increase electricity transmission rates for legal entities engaged in cryptocurrency mining by two to five times. The objective of the increase is to force mining centers to move to regions with excess capacity.

Finance

• Raiffeisenbank launched SWIFT transfers in tenge on September 20. The conversion will be carried out at the bank’s internal rate. Customers should check with the receiving bank if they can accept a tenge transfer.

Business

• Russian fashion retailer Lime plans to equip its stores with a cafe area, Kommersant reported.
• MTS is testing new models of smart speakers made in China. They will become a control center for a smart home, to which devices from different providers can be connected, Kommersant learned.

Services and technologies

• The Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC) suspended the license of the Russian antivirus developer Dr.Web.
• Elon Musk’s Neuralink is looking for volunteers among paralyzed patients to implant a chip in the brain. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the safety of the implant (N1) and the surgical robot that will perform the operation (R1), as well as the initial functionality of the brain-computer interface (BCI), which allows people with paralysis to control external devices with the power of thought.

Transport

• The demand of Russians for voluntary car insurance has increased sharply: from April to June 2023, more than 2 million comprehensive insurance contracts were issued, Izvestia reports.