FILE PHOTO: The logo of VTB bank is seen at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 3, 2021. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state-owned bank VTB will launch a digital bank within the mobile messaging app of leading social network VKontakte, Russia's answer to Facebook, as Moscow seeks technological solutions to disrupted banking transfers.
Western providers Google Pay and Apple Pay restricted access to their services after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022. That made operations with banks abroad particularly challenging as many bank cards stopped working overseas and Russia was disconnected from global payment systems.
