TRUSTHECH 2016 #10 (250) 2016 Vladimir Krupnov (NovaCard): SIM-Centric NFC Projects Look Perspective in Russia Vladimir Krupnov, founder and President of NovaCard Company, has spoken with the Banking Technologies magazine about the key trends, drivers, and growth barriers on the Russian card market. «Banking Technologies»: What major trends can you identify in the development of the Russian card market in 2016? <...> Vladimir Krupnov: As far as the evolution of non-cash payment industry is concerned, last year we saw a very substantial increase in the level of availa bility of non-cash payment instruments (both in terms of number of issued cards and in terms of the increase in the base of POS terminals installed). <...> On the other hand, looking at the absolute indices allows us to see the full scale of the increasing wider segments of the population using such non-cash card instruments. <...> It should be noted that the Russian market was originally in a very “good shape” in terms of the technological component; thus, for instance, its migra tion to EMV was quick and seamless. <...> Nowadays, almost no one remembers those “magnetic-only” cards any more, while the use of the Chip&PIN standard has become a truly mass phenomenon in Russia. <...> The next stage of the tech nological development of our card market, beginning of which we are now wit nessing, consists in a transition to the dual interface standard (cards having both a contact chip and a contactless antenna module). <...> We estiБАНКОВСКИЕ 54 mate that at present almost 100% of the POS terminals in this country accept chip cards (equipped with contact readers), and only 25% of the installed base are currently equipped with contactless readers. <...> Finally, another important trend that characterizes the future of this market is the appearance of global companies with tokenized cards in NFC smartphones. <...> One-fourth of the terminals in this country is already capable of accepting payments from Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, which already constitutes a decent foundation for their development. <...> In addition, considering the fact that modern international payment schemes no longer let banks install new POS terminals without contactless readers (and banks must make their acquiring networks 100% contactless <...>