Published on: 2026-04-07
Source: Mainfin Bank –
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How do Russians prefer to pay for goods and services?
The Bank of Russia annually analyzes the situation in the payment market, recording changes in the payment methods. Based on the results of 2025, the regulator provides the following statistical data:
- The share of cashless payments accounts for about 88% of the total volume of transactions;
- instead ofplastic cardsAlternative instruments are increasingly being used – their share in cashless payment methods exceeds 14%;
- The popularity of payments via Bluetooth is growing – by 2025, the volume of such operations will exceed 35 billion rubles.
- 4 billion payments totaling 5.7 trillion rubles were made in a year using biometrics and QR codes – an indicator that grew by 80% over 12 months;
- There is an increased interest in electronic wallets – in 2025, almost 9 billion transactions were carried out using them, amounting to 13.3 trillion rubles. (annual growth – more than 40%).
Russians are increasingly choosing alternative payment instruments for cashless transactions. A plastic card is not needed in this case; the operation is carried out using smartphones, which offers significant convenience.
What awaits the Russian payment solutions market in the coming years?
Representatives of the Bank of Russia assured that in the next 5 years, bank cards and cash will not disappear from circulation within the country. However, their share may decrease in favor of other instruments, including virtual cards and contactless payments.
“Payments using biometrics, Bluetooth, and QR codes are becoming in demand among Russians. For payment, plastic cards are not needed; the transaction is made from a smartphone literally with one touch or a couple of clicks,” noted the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
Together with that, the introduction of cashless payments caused disruptions occurring in the operation of banking services. The largest-scale restrictions were recorded on April 3, 2026: terminals, applications, and ATMs of the country’s largest financial institutions did not work for about two hours. Clients faced difficultiesSber,T-Bank,VTB.
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