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Sberbank is planning to launch Internet-based retail share trade on Wednesday, a technological leap forward for the institution.
Andrei Golikov, head of the treasury operations department at , said it expected many of its 200,000 brokerage clients to move to its new platform.
The bank's chief executive, German Gref, is working to modernize the former Soviet savings bank, which operates both in far-flung rural branches, where clerks fill out transaction slips in pencil, as well as slick city offices.
About 300 clients around the country are currently using the system, and the bank uses the same technology to provide brokerage services at 950 branch offices.
The new technology would extend the territory served by Sberbank's brokerage and prevent its clients using multiple banks for retail deposits and stock broking.
"It is crucial that we don't divide up the country into active and passive territories, that we offer identical modern services to everyone," Golikov said.
At the same time, he said Sberbank would not make it available to casual and first-time investors. Russian officials lament the continuing lack of investment culture in the country, and brokers say new clients sometimes require extensive education.
"We will only recommend the product to those clients who know how to use computers and those who can think on their feet -- who are able and know how to invest on the stock market," Golikov said.
Sberbank to Start E-Brokerage
30 June 2009
Reuters
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