Мои русские друзья, это хороший день для вас! Good news for those in Russia. Android Pay has come to your country with 15 banks supporting it. The tap-to-pay service has been rumored for weeks to be coming to the country but Google made it official on their Russian site today. It’s good news for a country and good for Android Pay as it continues its slow march across the planet.
As for the banks supported, here is the rundown:
- Sberbank
- Alfa-Bank
- VTB24
- Russian Standard Bank
- Raiffeisen Bank
- Bank Otkritie
- Rocketbank
- Tochka
- Russian Agricultural Bank
- Yandex.Money
- B&N Bank
- Tinkoff
- Promsvyazbank
- Ak Bars Bank
- MTS Bank
While it certainly isn’t every bank in the country, key large banks within the country on on the list which means it will hit a large percentage of customers.
If you bank with one of these banks, you can download the Android Pay app and add your debit or credit cards to the app. Then you can use it to tap-and-pay at terminals where it is accepted. Remember, in order for it to work, your Android phone has to support NFC. There are already a wide range of retailers within Russia that support Android Pay.
The expansion of Pay into other countries has been a slow process and adding Russia to the list will certainly help progress it further. How about Canada or Brazil next, eh Google?
