Sberbank of Russia : Financial behavior of Russians during New Year holidays remains unchanged

Russians' financial behavior during the recent New Year holidays was in line with the typical pattern seen over the last few years.

During the week ahead of the holidays, Russians preferred cash, as usual. The daily average of cash withdrawals jumped by 52%. However, during the first week of the new year 2021, the metric was less than one-half of the daily average.

Andrey Zharsky, Director of Self-Service Terminals Network Management:

'Although customers are generally losing interest in cash, withdrawals are more often ahead of New Year. Knowing these customer patterns, we always prepare for the New Year holidays properly. Collection, customer services, and monitoring of self-service terminals step up their game. We never cease to enhance our customer services, and due to the improvements we've made, the frequency of ATM-related inquiries from our customers dropped by over 40% y-o-y.'