The West imposed sweeping restrictions on Russia's financial system after it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine last February. Switching off Russian major banks' access to the SWIFT international messaging system has hurt lenders and consumers alike.

The Bank of Russia has developed an alternative to SWIFT, the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), and simplified the way banks can use its Faster Payments System (FPS) with foreign counterparts for cross-border transfers.

VTB said the new service, which it plans to launch in the first quarter of this year, will allow FPS transfers to the CIS group of ex-Soviet countries.

In October, VTB began offering cross-border transfers via mobile phone, widely used within Russia, to customers of its subsidiary bank in Armenia.

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Alexander Marrow, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)