·         In its first year after becoming a digital “lifestyle” community, imagin has received more than 500,000 new users.

·         According to Smartme Analytics data, imagin is the leading digital financial services app among major neobanks and fintech companies.

·         The community has strengthened its commitment to sustainability through imaginPlanet: the “imaginers” have managed to offset 50 tons in CO2, collect 200 kilograms of plastics, and add 40,000 people to the cause of saving on food waste.

imagin, the digital services and lifestyle platform driven by CaixaBank, Spain´s leading retail bank, has celebrated its first anniversary since its launch as a new digital community concept, adding more than 500,000 new users and reaching a total balance of 3.1 million imaginers. This represents a growth rate at new highs of 20% in a single year. In the band of users over 18 years of age, specifically, growth during this first year has reached over 30%.

This data strengthens imagin's leadership as a digital financial services player. In its first year after the new app was launched to market, the platform ranks as a leader among the top neobanks and fintech companies, with a 15.2% share of active users and a score of 83 out of 100 for mobile performance in the neobanking sector in Spain, as the latest Smartme Analytics study shows. Smartme Analytics Mobile Performance Index monitors financial application usage and values performance on the basis of variables such as number of active users, daily usage time, interaction, and exclusive use frequency.

As well as growing in new users, imagin has also increased the loyalty of those who were already imaginers. During the last year, upwards of 60% of imagin users enter the app more than 3 times a week. A significant figure of volume of activity is the 23 million app accesses recorded in July 2021 in a single month, marking an all-time record of use of the app. At the operational level, use of Bizum through imagin has doubled in the last year, with an average of 4.2 million transactions per month, and mobile payment has catapulted 400% compared to 2020.

According to data from imagin, the most common customer profile is that of a young person with an average of 26 years of age, residing in a large city and operating in a digital environment. At the regional level, 32% of connections to the imagin app are made from the Community of Madrid and 29% from Catalonia.

imagin’s growth comes in response to the user loyalty boosting strategy arising from the creation of digital, financial and non-financial services, which, unlike traditional banking, do not necessarily involve somebody registering as a banking customer. During the past year, a plethora of digital content and services has been launched on the platform that have attracted a great deal of interest among the imaginer community, based on five major subject areas: sustainability (imaginPlanet), music (imaginMusic), video games (imaginGames), trends (imaginCafé) and technology (imaginShop).

Solid commitment to sustainability

Among the imaginer community, sustainability is one of the fields that kindles the most interest, interaction and involvement of users. Through imaginPlanet, this year, imagin has implemented a full line of sustainability-based products, services, agreements and initiatives that create a positive impact for the planet and society as a whole. As a result of such actions, imaginPlanet has succeeded in boosting tree plantations to offset upwards of 60 tons of CO2, collecting 200 kilograms of plastics and more than 40,000 imaginers have joined in saving on food waste through the partnership with “Too Good To Go”.

Initiatives in this area this year include the success of the imaginPlanet Challenge, the programme of entrepreneurship ideas to combat climate change, featuring over 700 participants, and two projects, eCoDeliver and Kidalos, which seek boost the sustainability of the parcel carrier sector and the consumption of toys, respectively.

This commitment to sustainability, which is part of imagin's strategy and is conveyed to its entire business model, has earned the platform a B Corp certification in November last year. This guarantees the company's compliance with the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and corporate responsibility to balance economic benefit with social purpose.

A year of successful initiatives

Besides supporting environmental causes, one of the most important projects this year and which has had the greatest impact on the imagin community is the recent launch of imaginChangers, the program that enables imagin users to take part in digital volunteering actions through their mobile devices and support charity projects with financial donations.

In June, imaginGames, in partnership with LVP (Mediapro Group), launched the amateur eSports circuit “imagin Arena Masters”, while the imaginMusic content area held several concerts this year over streaming that have been viewed by thousands of imaginers via the digital channels.

Besides the content offering itself, thanks to its open platform business model, imagin continues to commit to incorporating third-party products and technologies through partnerships with other fintech companies and start-ups. Over the past year, imagin has reached agreements to offer its users special experiences and benefits integrated into the app with partners such as Booking, Nike, Airbnb, Hoteles.com, TUI and Zalando, among others. Furthermore, imaging has integrated start-up technologies such as Earthly into its platform to help users offset their CO2 emissions; Aplanet, as a platform for the gamification of digital volunteering actions and financial donations; and Bankify, the “Like&Share” social component that encourages imaginers' interaction with the content available in the app, as well as interaction between different community users.

Digital financial services

At the financial level, the imagin application develops digital products offered to meet the saving and financing needs of users. In all cases, imagin has the key features for the digital native public: mobile only banking (the services are provided exclusively through the app, with no branches and no website, which solely fulfils an informative purpose), with no fees for the user and its own simple and clear language, especially suited to directly communicating with young people.

The imagin offering includes two further applications according to the age of users: imaginKids (intended for children from 0 to 11 years of age and highly focused towards financial education through games), imaginTeens (designed for adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age, with contents and services intended for young people who are beginning to require solutions for their first purchases and to start out in managing their personal finances).

• 26.08.2021 -- 11:37 am

Compass Plus is passionate about payments technology and architecting it properly for the needs of today and tomorrow. From start-ups and industry disruptors to recognised innovators and market leaders, its exceptional technology puts customers in the driving seat and ultimately in control of their payment ecosystems. The company delivers ground-breaking and industry-leading products and services with uncontested ease and proven time-to-market.

Being at the forefront of the decentralized finance industry, Unicrypt has developed disruptive products that boost the security of token circulation in DeFi projects. For creating the token locking feature, it has selected Platinum Software Development Company’s engineering team. Platinum plans to transfer the EVM-compatible solidity code (kindly provided by Unicrypt) into the Rust programming language. This partnership will help them expand their range of decentralized finance services and develop highly demanded utility tools for Solana-based projects.

Rich tech experience for ground-breaking results

Companies are making a great shift towards multi-blockchain technologies and Solana is one of the most convenient and functional environments for that. This time, the Unicrypt team has decided to develop a well-thought-through token-locking mechanism on Solana. Here’s where Platinum’s engineering experience and knowledge come into play. Together, the two companies will create an advanced token-locking technology that will power multiple services.

“We are proud to have been chosen by Unicrypt for developing the token locking technology for Solana blockchain. Unicrypt is a very promising startup with great ambitions that it plans to turn into highly applicable services. This collaboration will give us deeper insight into multi-blockchain technologies. We will dedicate our time to mastering the Rust code database since it holds enormous potential for blockchain tech”, said Anton Dziatkovskii, Platinum’s co-founder.

How will this solution serve customers? With the rapid development of DeFi, there’s a large number of market-making platforms and functions appearing on the Solana blockchain. It guarantees the safety and agility that the crypto community needs so much. Unicrypt is striving to develop and present its own solution on Solana. For this purpose, it will share the Rust code base with Platinum devs.

“We are glad to present Platinum Software Development Company, the guys helping us craft the Solana-based, token-locking mechanism. Since our ultimate goal is to create a comprehensive network of Solana-based services, we are eager to share our experience and to guide our partners through the Rust programming environment. Together with Platinum, we will present features that make DeFi a safer haven for investors”, commented the Unicrypt team.

HUBUC, an embedded financial services powerhouse for B2B SaaS, has partnered with Transact Payments, the experts in cards and payments, to provide physical cards to its business clients across UK and European Economic Area (EEA) markets.

HUBUC empowers forward-looking Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) brands to make their offering more versatile by plugging into the right infrastructure to embed financial services, such as improved reconciliation, expense and supply chain management, and wage advancement. The agreement with Transact Payments enables HUBUC to now issue products such as debit and credit cards to its growing base of business clients.

The partnership comes at a time of intense interest from businesses across the UK and the EEA in embedded financial services and its capabilities, especially in SaaS sectors like accounting, employee benefits, payroll and tax management. Further interest is also being driven by large corporate clients within industries like insurance and supply chain management. Such sectors are able to leverage embedded financial products to create new methods of monetisation, offering more versatile services, as well as improving the customer experience.

From a single API, HUBUC covers all compliance needs and provides access to cutting-edge fintech and banking partners, which enables businesses to offer their customers innovative financial services, increasing customer loyalty and enhancing user experience. HUBUC also ensures the highest level of financial security, from product features such as dynamic CVV codes on cards to ongoing Anti-Money Laundering monitoring drawing on the latest machine learning techniques.

Ignacio Javierre, Co-Founder & COO, HUBUC, said: “Embedded financial services is a driving force behind innovation across many industries, especially B2B SaaS with a non-fintech core. Debit and credit cards provide plenty of opportunities when it comes to expense management and employee benefits. Transact Payments is a valuable partner which enables us to provide those services in Europe and the UK."

Aaron Carpenter CEO, TPML said: “We’re delighted to have partnered with HUBUC to provide a smooth cardholder payment service to its business clients. It comes at a time when more and more businesses are waking up to the significant benefits offered by embedded financial services, making HUBUC’s innovative platform much sought after.”

• European HQ established in Dublin due to its position as a global centre for financial services innovation, thriving technology scene and access to skilled talent.

• HQ led by former WhatsApp and Facebook Executive, Joe Morley, TrueLayer’s Vice President and General Manager for Europe and new Chief Operating Officer for Europe, Leigh-Anne Cotter.

TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking platform, has announced it has been authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) as a Payments Institution and established its new European headquarters in Dublin to support its rapidly growing client base across the continent.

The expansion marks another significant milestone for TrueLayer on its mission to open up finance, building an open banking network that brings together payments, financial data and identity to redefine how people spend, save, and transact online. Its API-first platform offers more than 90% coverage of all major European markets, and accounts for more than half of all open banking traffic in the UK, Ireland and Spain, processing billions of euros in payments.

TrueLayer’s choice of Ireland for its European HQ has been in part motivated by Dublin establishing itself as a European financial services centre and strategic hub for innovation, home to around 450 financial services companies, creating a sophisticated fintech and payments ecosystem. Additionally, the CBI has a strong track record as a regulator committed to delivering quality financial authorisation and supervision. 

The European HQ is led by Joe Morley in the role of General Manager for Europe, having joined the firm earlier this year to manage the authorisation process. The former WhatsApp and Facebook executive brings extensive payments, technical and commercial knowledge, having launched and managed the business APIs for the monetisation of both platforms in EMEA. Joe is leading the European management team from Dublin for all supporting functions, in addition to the in-market country managers that the company is actively hiring for.

Joining TrueLayer as its Chief Operating Officer for Europe is Leigh-Anne Cotter, who was previously head of Commerce and Payments Operations at WhatsApp. Leigh-Anne brings significant payments experience having also been part of the leadership team at one of Ireland’s most successful international companies, Realex Payments.

“Ireland has become the EU’s fintech centre of choice with the likes of Coinbase, Stripe, Remitly, Square and our clients, including Paysafe and Payoneer being based here. We are excited to be joining them, making Dublin our home from which to accelerate our European expansion and deliver our market-leading open banking services to banks, fintech firms and ecommerce platforms across the continent,” commented Joe Morley, CEO for TrueLayer Ireland and GM Europe. “The Irish domestic market is also evolving rapidly with our clients such as Revolut having rapidly established an impressive user base, supporting consumers and businesses with open banking-based services that improve their everyday lives. The future is incredibly exciting with open banking payments replacing cards as the primary payment method at the checkout for ecommerce firms of every shape and size.”

TrueLayer has expanded its services across 12 European markets, growing payment volumes by 600x, and adding hundreds of new customers across banks, fintech firms, ecommerce, trading, wealth management and iGaming. 

Francesco Simoneachi, CEO and co-founder of TrueLayer commented: “When we began our search for a European HQ, we wanted a location that mirrored much of what made the UK such an exceptional base for us -  a strong regulator, in an established global financial services centre that embraces fintech and digital innovation. Ireland was ideal, with the CBI’s regulatory regime broadly similar to the UK, and Dublin being a thriving centre for payments and ecommerce. The city has built an incredible reputation for financial services and offers the talent across engineering, product and payments that we will need to support our ambitious growth plans. We’re only the second firm to be authorised by CBI in 2021, so I’m incredibly proud of the team that worked on the application to make our European HQ a reality.”

This expansion is TrueLayer’s latest milestone in 2021, with the company expanding globally, establishing operations in APAC with an office in Australia and launching innovative services such as PayDirect. Today, more than 10,000 developers are actively building services and applications on the TrueLayer platform.

New brand will unify acquired companies, aiming to illuminate overseas payments and focus on customer goals   

Foreign Currency Direct (FCD) today launches as Lumon, bringing together customers from recent acquisitions including Infinity International and Earthport FX under one distinctive, forward-thinking brand. In the crowded overseas payments space, Lumon combines the companies’ expertise to bring bank-beating rates and cutting-edge technology together to provide clarity on moving money across borders for both business and personal customers across the portfolio.

The new name is inspired by light. Lumon shines an expert light on overseas payments and reveals the overseas payments landscape to customers. Its strength lies in its focused support, dedicated to helping customers understand the options open to them to achieve their goals.

Alongside an effortless payment process and bank-beating rates, Lumon offers true expertise and a relationship-based approach. Optimising the power of the latest payment technologies, coupled with the laser-sharp focus and personal service of the European-wide team and partners, Lumon unites people, technology and expertise to meet the needs of existing and new customers.

Shamus Hodgson, Chief Executive Officer at Lumon, said:

“The overseas payments industry is rapidly evolving and yet we believe it’s crying out for reinvention. Through a period of economic market volatility and rapid development of digital first offers, we’ve always had our customers’ end goals in mind.”

Following extreme volatility in the currencies market caused by global events such as Brexit and COVID-19, Lumon’s new strategic direction seeks to disrupt the world of overseas payments. Lumon’s state-of-the-art payment platforms and sophisticated hedging and commercial strategies help customers move their money effortlessly, analyse currency risks and understand the myriad of options available to them, leaving them to focus on their day-to-day business needs and individual aspirations. The team’s deep sector expertise and continuous focus on customer goals mean that Lumon can provide clarity. By working with them to manage risk end-to-end, Lumon can create an overseas payments strategy that makes business goals and individual aspirations a reality.

Shamus continued:

“For too long businesses and individuals have been left in the dark; there’s been a lack of transparency from the overseas payments sector about the solutions available and the costs involved. Lumon is our challenge to the market.”

“By consolidating our resources and expertise under one brand and one team, our distinctive offering gives our customers sector-leading service that is always tailored to their goals – from purchasing a new property overseas to expanding a business internationally – and is always underpinned by our values. Like our previous brands, Lumon will be unashamedly customer-led. We see value in focusing on tomorrow’s plans, not just daily foreign exchange rates”.

Lumon is part of Pollen Street Capital's portfolio of companies. An independent, alternative investment management company, Pollen Street Capital specializes in driving digitally-led high-growth businesses in the financial and business services sectors.

Also provides updates on developmental progress 

ELEMENTARYb, the intelligent financial management platform providing complete control to MMEs, has appointed Shuab Akhtar as Director of Product.  Shuab will drive the development, delivery and ongoing evolution of the company’s business management software platform.

He brings considerable relevant experience, from a 20-year career in successfully developing innovative software products within the banking and FinTech industries. 

Most recently, during four years with Handelsbanken, as Senior Business Analyst he quickly rose to be instrumental in the delivery of its newly-commissioned greenfield mortgage lending platform, where he shaped value streams, customer journeys and championed the user experience.  

Prior to this, Shuab focused on Account Opening and On-Boarding at Barclays and further experience includes similar initiatives at BT and Towergate Insurance, as well as Bentley Motors, the BBC, Panasonic and FT Group.

ELEMENTARYb also announces that it has appointed Accedia as its technology partner. Accedia has a strong track-record in hosting and maintaining large SaaS platforms and will provide ELEMENTARYb with software and data analytics development services as its platform develops and scales. It has also appointed experienced designers to optimise the user experience (UX) and a specialist cloud engineer to its development team.

Shuab Akhtar, ELEMENTARYb’s Director of Product said: “I’m delighted to join the company at such an exciting time in its development.  We share the same ethos and passion to deliver great software solutions to make businesses more efficient and more profitable.  

“ELEMENTARYb has a clear purpose and I look forward to contributing to its core mission, to provide MME’s with a business management software platform that makes running their operations infinitely easier and more predictable.”

Karen Rudich, CEO of ELEMENTARYb, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Shuab and see the incredible impact his background will add to the Eb proposition.  In all his previous positions he has far exceeded his roles and his entrepreneurial spirit has led him to deliver visionary innovations in a rapidly developing field.  His commitment to customer experience, coupled with his hands-on expertise in building and managing complex FinTech platforms made him the perfect addition to our highly experienced and driven team.”

She added: “Shuab’s appointment is just the latest step in our development.  In recent weeks we’ve also appointed a great-fit technology partner, Accedia, to deliver automated financial forecasting, planning and analysis functionality our complex clients require.  Also, we’ve added to our development team with a specialist cloud engineer and two designers to concentrate on the UX of our platform.  We continue to work hard to tailor the platform to meet the needs of mid-sized organisations, a class of businesses which is so important to our economy, but so underserved by existing technologies.”

Eb is currently offering investment and test-client opportunities.

• Total customers reached 16.7m in 2Q’21 (2Q’20: 11.2m)
• Total revenues grew 37% to RUB 65.0 bn in 2Q’21 (2Q’20: RUB 47.4 bn)
• Non-credit business lines reached 44% of revenues
• Net profit rose 57% to RUB 16.1 bn in 2Q’21 (2Q’20: RUB 10.2 bn)
• ROE reached 46.1% in 2Q’21 (2Q’20: 40.0%)

TCS Group Holding PLC (LI: TCS, MOEX: TCSG) (“Tinkoff”, “We”, the "Group", the “Company”), a leading provider of online financial and lifestyle services via its Tinkoff ecosystem, today announces its consolidated IFRS results for the three months and six months ended 30 June 2021.

Oliver Hughes, CEO of Tinkoff Group, commented:

“We had another strong quarter and we are proud to report that Tinkoff is now serving more than 16.7 total customers and is continuing to grow rapidly. We showed excellent performance across just about all of our business-lines and cross-sell is clearly becoming a major driver of our business as we unlock the power of our ecosystem.

We continue delivering profitable growth with net profit rising 57% year-on-year to a new quarterly record of RUB 16.1 bn. ROE climbed to 46.1% in the period, underpinned by well-diversified revenue streams.

During 2Q we enhanced our partnership network by acquiring a 5% stake in SPB Exchange, an important partner for Tinkoff Investments. Also, we bought a controlling stake in the loyalty app Koshelek, which has substantial synergies with our core business and a market-leading position with 11 million monthly active users of the app.  We believe that there is significant scope for further partnerships and bolt-on acquisitions as we search for businesses that have strong fit with our ecosystem, in particular, in the areas of brokerage, payments and SME.   In line with this logic, we also launched a new Service Partner Program, aimed at seeking out top start-ups and technology projects. As part of this program, Tinkoff Group aims to become a strategic partner to companies that show stable growth and have the potential to be integrated into the business-lines of the Tinkoff ecosystem.

As previously communicated, the Company is currently engaging with regulators to explore licensing options and market entry strategies in a number of key markets in South and Southeast Asia. We plan to provide the market with an update on this important component of Company’s strategy in Q4 2021.

Finally, we plan to announce the second wave of TCSGH Board expansion in the coming weeks to further enhance our corporate governance.  Please look out for the announcement.”

Stanislav Bliznyuk, Chairman of the Tinkoff Bank Management Board, added:

“I’m pleased to highlight that our non-credit revenue continued rising steadily and accounted for 44% of total revenue in Q2 2021.

During the second quarter, we surpassed 100,000 daily deliveries of our Tinkoff Black products, the backbone of our ecosystem, setting a new daily record for us. Tinkoff Black now boasts 10.6 million total customers as of the end of June. At the same time, our Tinkoff Pro subscription service is taking off, with over 750k customer accounts activated only 8 months from its launch, which demonstrates a new level of engagement by our core client base.

In 2Q, we also launched our BNPL business – which is one of the more existing and faster-growing segments globally.  Our Dolyame offering became Russia’s first digital BNPL (buy-now-pay-later). The new platform facilitates combines the advantages of online acquiring and installment plans. Buyers can pay for goods in installments without incurring interest, and sellers can immediately receive the full purchase price in their account without delays. We believe this has tremendous market potential.

Tinkoff Investments, Russia’s leading brokerage by active customer base, expanded to serve 2.3 million total customers by the end of 1H 2021.  Most recently, Tinkoff Investments has appointed Ilya Oprenko as Head of Private Banking to lead this new offering at Tinkoff. He will focus on developing our advisory and lifestyle offerings, as well as Private Equity and alternative investments not previously available to Tinkoff Investments customers.

In July, we completed our debut securitisation transaction, which involved an offering of mortgage-backed securities. Going forward, securitisation will be an important mechanism at our disposal to balance capital requirements and manage liquidity.

Tinkoff Acquiring is capturing market share, reaching approximately 15% of Russian ecommerce acquiring in the first half of 2021 and securing our place as one of the top three Russian banks in this segment. We are confident that the rapid growth of Russian ecommerce will present us with many opportunities to further expand this business line.

Tinkoff Business continued growing its customer base, with particularly strong performance in the medium-sized business segment. The SME business line reached 547 thousand total customers at the end of the second quarter.

Our efforts have not gone unnoticed. Tinkoff has been named Central and Eastern Europe’s Best Digital Bank of 2021 by Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence, one of several important accolades we received this year.”

FINANCIAL AND OPERATING REVIEW

In 2Q’21, the Group’s total revenue grew by 37% y-o-y to RUB 65.0 bn (2Q’20: RUB 47.4 bn). Gross interest income increased by 22% y-o-y to RUB 39.9 bn (2Q’20: RUB 32.7 bn), driven by the continued growth of our loan portfolio, customer base, and credit product range.
Gross interest yield decreased y-o-y to 25.6% in 2Q’21 (2Q’20: 29.8%), mainly as a result of the declining interest rate environment and changes in the loan mix. The interest yield on the Group’s securities portfolio increased slightly to 5.5% (2Q’20: 5.4%).

In 2Q’21, in connection with the increase in our funding base as we continued to grow our customer base and account balances, interest expense rose only by 11% y-o-y to RUB 6.2 bn (2Q’20: RUB 5.6 bn). This was driven by a continued decline in our cost of borrowing from 4.5% in 2Q’20 to 3.4% in 2Q’21, due to a gradual decrease in deposit rates (consistent with market rate decreases) and a growing share of current accounts in the funding mix.

In 2Q’21, net margin grew by 23% y-o-y to RUB 33.1 bn (2Q’20: RUB 26.8 bn), primarily as a result of solid y-o-y net loan portfolio growth.

Cost of risk fell to 4.5% in 2Q’21 from 12.5% in 2Q’20. Our risk-adjusted net interest margin rose from 13.3% in 1Q’21 to 14.2% in 2Q’21 (2Q’20: 10.6%).

Our non-credit business lines continue to deliver an increasing share of our revenue and bottom line thanks to growth of the customer base, our widened range of product offerings and continued monetisation efforts. In 2Q’21 non-credit revenue represented 44% of the Group’s revenue and 18% of the Group’s profit before tax.

At the end of 2Q’21, the Group had:

• 10.6 mn total retail current account customers with a total balance of RUB 375 bn
• over 547k total SME customers, with a total balance of RUB 93 bn
• over 2.3 mn total Tinkoff Investments customers and over RUB 500 bn in customer assets under custody

In 2Q’21, operating expenses increased 90% y-o-y to RUB 24.1 bn (2Q’20: RUB 12.7 bn) driven by continued investment in marketing and advertising for our new, growing business lines.

The Group reported robust quarterly net profit of RUB 16.1 bn in 2Q’21 (2Q’20: RUB 10.2 bn), supported by new customer acquisition and monetisation. As a result, ROE for 2Q’21 stood at 46.1% (2Q’20: 40.0%).

In 2Q’21, the Group continued to maintain a healthy balance sheet with total assets growing by 12% since the end of 2020 to RUB 966 bn (31 Dec’20: RUB 859 bn).

The Group’s gross loan book grew by 30% since the end of 2020 to RUB 580 bn (31 Dec’20: RUB 447 bn), while the net loan book increased by 35% to RUB 507 bn (31 Dec’20: RUB 377 bn).

The Group’s NPL ratio decreased to 8.7% (31 Dec’20: 10.3%), while our loan loss provision coverage stood at 1.44x non-performing loans.

The Group’s customer accounts increased by 13% since the end of 2020 to RUB 707 bn (31 Dec’20: RUB 627 bn).

Tinkoff’s total equity rose by 16% to RUB 147 bn at the end of 2Q’21 (31 Dec’20: RUB 127 bn). As of 1 July 2021, the Group’s statutory N1.0 ratio stood at 12.2%, its N1.2 ratio stood at 11.9%, and the N1.1 ratio stood at 10.0%.

upgraded GUIDANCE FOR FY’21

While some uncertainty remains, we believe we have enough visibility to upgrade our guidance for the financial year of 2021 under the assumption of a gradual recovery in economic activity:

• We now expect our net loan portfolio growth to be 50+% (was previously more than 30%)
• We expect cost of risk to be in the 5% area (was previously 7-8%)
• We expect cost of borrowing to be 3-4% (unchanged)
• We expect the share of non-credit revenues to be more than 40% (unchanged)
• We expect net profit to be at least RUB 60 bn (was previously RUB 55 bn)

EXTENSION OF THE BUYBACK PROGRAMME TO 2022

The Board approved an extension to the current GDRs buyback programme launched April 2021 expiring 31 August 2021 of up to an additional 1.05M GDRs (programme aggregate 1.5M, of which approximately 450K have been purchased) in the period to 30 June 2022, up to a maximum programme expenditure of USD125M (conditional upon the approval of the shareholders for the period after the 2021 AGM).  The purpose of the Programme remains to fund the Company's long-term management incentive plan MLTIP, as notified in earlier disclosures in April 2021. The GDRs repurchased by the Company will be held in treasury pending cancellation or other permitted use.

The Programme will be conducted consistent with the general authority to repurchase shares/GDRs granted by the Company's shareholders at the 2020 annual general meeting, and otherwise in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Details of any purchases made under the Programme will be provided via RNS announcements and published on the Company's website.

2Q’2021 AND POST-REPORTING PERIOD OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

Customer base and engagement growth has led to increased market share

• The Group had over 10.6 mn total Tinkoff Black customers as of 1 July 2021.
• As of 1 July 2021, Group MAU stood at 12.5 mn, Group DAU stood at 4.2 mn.
• Tinkoff Bank’s credit card market share increased to 14,6% as of 1 July 2021, further solidifying its position as Russia’s second largest credit card issuer.

The market and industry associations recognised Tinkoff’s strong performance

• In May, Tinkoff Mobile was named Russia's most innovative mobile operator in a survey conducted by TelecomDaily – a leading Russian media covering telecom market.
• In July, Voice assistant Oleg won in two categories in Chatbot Rank 2021 ranking organised by Markswebb, scoring the first place both in the Best Customer Experience in Chats ranking out of all digital companies and in the Quality of Customer Experience in Chats ranking among Russia’s top 15 banks.
• In July, Tinkoff was named Central and Eastern Europe’s Best Digital Bank at Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence 2021. In this category, Euromoney looked for true leadership in a bank’s digital offering as well as evidence that the company’s technology benefits not only the efficiency of the institution, but also customers themselves.
• In July, Tinkoff received Quality Recognition Awards by J.P. Morgan in three categories, in recognition of its operational excellence in processing customer payments in foreign currencies in 2020.
• In July, Tinkoff won four out of seven CEMEA categories in the 2020 Visa Global Service Quality Awards – an annual client performance program honoring the world’s highest-performing acquirers, issuers, and issuer processors.
• In July, Frank Cards & Reward named Tinkoff’s Superapp the best daily mobile banking app among its 2021 awards recipients.
• In August, Brand Finance Magazine announced its 2021 Brand Finance Russia 50 rating, in which Tinkoff rose by 7 spots to 32^nd place, in addition to being included in the top 5 most valuable banks in Russia.

Superior and innovative product offering combined with targeted marketing activities secure Tinkoff’s place as a leading fintech brand

• In April, Tinkoff acquired a majority stake in Beskontakt LLC, the developer of Koshelek digital wallet, an aggregator of banking cards and retail loyalty programs. The Koshelek app is a leader in its field, reporting the highest number of users of any app in Russia and the CIS
• In June, Tinkoff launched a beta version of its free voice assistant Oleg which became available to subscribers of all Russian mobile operators. Oleg is not just a personal assistant but also a “defender" protecting customers from spammers and fraudsters.
• In June, Tinkoff launched a new program to assist startups and technology projects, as part of which it will become a strategic investor or partner to companies that show stable growth and have the potential to be integrated into Tinkoff’s services, product lines or its wider ecosystem.
• In June, Tinkoff adopted AI technology developed by Anodot – the autonomous business monitoring company – to help safe-proof the way customers experience payments and trading on the Tinkoff platform.
• In July, Tinkoff’s voice assistant Oleg was a winner in the Increase in Productivity category and a finalist in the Cost Reduction category of the first national award AI Russia Awards’21 – the first national award in the field of effective use of artificial intelligence for business.
• In August, Tinkoff and Yandex announced a partnership through which Tinkoff will offer online loans of up to RUB 200k to customers on the Yandex.Market ecommerce platform.

Commitment to further improving our Investor Relations (IR) disclosure and ESG practices

• Tinkoff’s senior management will continue its series of virtual Strategy Days for analysts and investors throughout the second half of the year, where they will present detailed information on Tinkoff’s business lines and exciting new strategic initiatives.

Corporate governance enhancements and new management appointments

• In July, Ilya Oprenko was appointed Head of Private Banking where he will oversee the launch of Tinkoff Private and be responsible for growing the segment’s assets and managing private banking teams. He will focus on developing our advisory and lifestyle offerings, as well as Private Equity and alternative investments not previously available to Tinkoff Investments customers.
• In July, Ivan Zimin was appointed Vice President for Integration of Government Technologies and Services, in order to develop Tinkoff’s presences and partnerships with the Russian Government’s fintech and digital services.

Other corporate developments

• In June, Tinkoff acquired 5% in the St. Petersburg Exchange – a major platform for trading international securities in Russia.
• In July, Tinkoff completed its debut mortgage securitisation, placed by mortgage agent TB 1. The placement included class A and class B bonds secured by a mortgage loan portfolio. The order book was 1.5x oversubscribed.
• In July, Tinkoff announced it would open 9 new development hubs across Russia and Belarus. The company intends to hire 800 employees to staff the development hubs by the end of the year.

UK MAR

This announcement is released by TCS Group Holding plc and contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal Act) 2018 ("UK MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of UK MAR.

CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATION

The Tinkoff management team will host an investor and analyst conference call at 14:00 UK time (16:00 Moscow time, 09:00 US Eastern Daylight Time), on Thursday, 26 August 2021.

The press release, presentation and financial statements will be available on the Tinkoff website at https://www.tinkoff.ru/eng/ir/financials/quarterly-earnings/

To participate in the conference call, please use the following access details:

• Singaporeans can save with super deals from 30 popular local and international merchants including Taobao, Amazon SG, iHerb, Lazada, Nike and Klook
• Users can now stack even more savings on overseas purchases, in addition to enjoying the best exchange rates offered by the debit card 

YouTrip, Singapore's leading multi-currency wallet, is giving Singaporeans more value when they spend by introducing YouTrip Perks, a one-stop platform to discover the best deals and promos from their favourite local and international brands.

In this rollout, the company has partnered 30 merchants spanning e-commerce marketplaces, beauty, fashion, travel, streaming services, food and beverage as well as health and wellness to offer exclusive discounts and cashbacks to users when shopping with them online and in-store.

"At YouTrip, we're always looking for ways to give our users the most cost-effective way to pay - from promising the best exchange rates when transacting in multi-currency, and now sealing the best deals for them on YouTrip Perks," said Jeremy Lim, Country Manager, YouTrip Singapore.

He added, "this is also timely as Singaporeans prepare their shopping carts for the year-end shopping season, and the in-store discounts relevant for those heading out during the easing of measures. This is only the start, and Singaporeans can look forward to more deals from online shopping options and local retail brands in the months to come."

Slash your spendings with YouTrip Perks

The merchants featured in YouTrip Perks are also a reflection of Singaporeans' current lifestyles and their well-loved merchants at home and abroad.

• Stack rebates when shopping internationally. Singaporeans love their foreign brands, and the numbers show it, with YouTrip registering a close to double growth in online overseas purchases among Singaporeans in the past 12 months^[1].
  
  To give users more of what they love, YouTrip Perks has brought on board top international shopping sites^[2] iHerb to offer 15% off health products beginning today, as well as discounts on Taobao purchases this September. Those stocking up on global beauty items and apparel can also start saving up to 25% when shopping from online skincare retailers Look Fantastic, Mankind as well as global streetwear label, HBX.
  
  More importantly, these rebates come on top of existing savings from the best exchange rates and no markups in over 150 currencies when checking out with the YouTrip card.

• Local discounts for every lifestyle. YouTrip Perks also offers a diversity of local deals to suit any shopper. In time for the upcoming mega sale days, bargain hunters can already earn 2% in cashback on Lazada, and another 6% on Amazon SG next month. Likewise, fashion gurus get up to 30% off the latest pieces at Zalora; whereas locals embarking on a 'Singapoliday' will enjoy 10% off staycations with Booking.com, Agoda and Klook.
  
  Lastly, for those looking to further their fitness journey, stock up on health supplements from MyProtein at a discounted rate of 55%, and receive cashbacks when refreshing that activewear wardrobe at Nike and Adidas. 

• Ready to head out and about. As Singaporeans gradually return to the office, YouTrip Perks is shaving a few bucks off that much-needed cuppa at homegrown cafes The Lokal and Huggs Coffee, and giving diners a sweet end to their meal with discounted sweets at Ice Bar or drinks at craft beer bar Almost Famous.

"At YouTrip, we look at data to inform every step of our product development. By understanding our users' purchase behaviour, we were able to select a list of merchants that they care about, and help them develop meaningful savings in their shopping journey," said Jeremy.

The full list of merchants can be found on YouTrip Perks.

Make the best out of YouTrip Perks today

1. Visit YouTrip Perks, and enter the unique Y-number located on your YouTrip card to start accessing the list of deals.
    
2. Click on the deals you'd like to redeem from that particular merchant and start shopping.
    
3. When you're ready, pay with your YouTrip card either in-store or on the merchant's respective website.
    
4. Discounts are either applied immediately upon payment in-store or online, applied after the promo-code is inserted, or in the form of cashback to your YouTrip wallet^[3].

• A global study of asset management professionals reveals investment over the coming 12 months will focus on technology and data infrastructure, and ensuring ESG compliance
• Data analytics, robotic process automation, and AI are the most critical technologies for business development, and 62% say cloud-native solutions will have a pivotal role in their IT strategy
• To improve levels of operational efficiency, 83% of asset managers say they will extend their strategic alliances with asset servicing and tech partners                                                                                                    

Investment in technology and data infrastructure sit at the top of asset managers’ priorities as they position themselves to deliver business growth in the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. 56% say their investment will focus on these areas over the next 12 months and for almost half (47%) on ensuring ESG compliance across their product range. These are the finding of a new report by Funds Europe - The Future of Investment Operations - for Temenos, the banking software company.

The survey of global investment professionals across the asset management sector also reveals Covid-19 has pushed firms to review their IT strategies and transition to the public/hybrid cloud. 62% of respondents say cloud-native solutions will play a key role in their IT strategy, followed by the importance of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions (48%) and the use of open API (application program interface) technology (46%).

To improve levels of operational efficiency, firms are seeking seamless interconnection between functions along the investment value chain. In the survey, 83% of asset managers say they will extend their strategic alliances with asset servicing and tech partners, enabling connection of middle- and back-office services straight to their front office tools and investment book of record (IBOR).

AI and Machine Learning are set to play a growing role in delivering insights, both predictive and ex-post analytics, across the investment lifecycle. The top applications for AI are portfolio analytics and performance measurement (60%), data sourcing, cleansing and enrichment (57%), and improving the operational efficiency of middle- and back-office processes (56%).

However, augmenting human expertise into AI models will be a priority in applying AI models, according to 60% of respondents. This capability is essential to deliver business intelligence in a way that is explainable to product teams, customers and financial supervisors.

Barry Lee, Business Solutions Director, Temenos Multifonds, comments: “In mapping out the road to recovery, asset servicing firms and fund managers are increasingly looking to take advantage of the tools, analytics and scalability of the cloud. Temenos’ SaaS-based Explainable AI (XAI), for example, enables our fund administrator clients to use AI to reduce manual interventions, detect potential breakdowns in workflow, and speed up exception management related to price movements. This future-proofs their operations against black-swan events and increases overall efficiency and productivity.”