"Not cheap money": Why Russian banks prefer Iran and Chechnya to China.
In English, monetary obligations are “debt”, and, for example, military debt is “duty”. In Russian, this is one word - "debt", and when Sberbank (MICEX: SBER) negotiated a loan in yuan against the backdrop of sanctions in connection with the events in Ukraine, he, taking on debt, fulfilled his duty to the government.
Almost two years ago, Sberbank received a 6 billion yuan ($870 million) credit line from the China Development Bank. The signing of the documents was arranged very solemnly, both leaders were present - Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
True, the loan was not really needed. The head of the investment division of Sberbank CIB, Igor Bulantsev, said in an interview with Bloomberg:
“We use lines in yuan, but very little, because we have excess liquidity, and these funds are more expensive than money from alternative sources.”
When it comes to China, Russia finds it difficult to reconcile its geopolitical ambitions with economic interests. Countries talk about creating a counterbalance to the US, often support each other at the UN, hold joint parades, and Xi Jinping tells Putin that he would like "eternal friendship between Russia and China."
However, the development of economic ties goes its own way. Yes, China remains Russia's largest trading partner, but last year turnover goods grew slightly, reaching 66 billion dollars - against the stated joint goal of 100 billion. In addition, there is a significant imbalance in relations, because for China, Russia is a partner of the scale of Vietnam.
An ambiguous picture
Last year, for the first time in history, the longest country in the world became the largest supplier of oil to the most populous country, but, say, the Chinese meat market for Russian producers is closed due to outbreaks of livestock diseases.
Not everything is going smoothly on the financial side. Banks - from VTB (LSEIOB: VTBR) to Gazprombank - once issued bonds denominated in yuan. This was presented as part of Russia's turn towards Asia against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis. However, as time passed, it turned out that all of them were repaid on time, and not refinanced, which means that creditors do not see prospects in the Chinese market. valuable papers.
Thus, the plans of the Russian government to issue bonds in yuan stalled. To date, the securities of Russian banks are traded only on offshore Chinese exchanges, and this is primarily VTB, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank, which have been present there since 2010.
As Bulantsev put it, "practice has shown that this is not cheap money."
Relationships develop
However, some progress has been made. Sberbank opens an office in Beijing, Hong Kong-listed Rusal (HKSE: 0486) announced in February plans to issue $1.5 billion in yuan bonds and become a pioneer among Russian companies in this matter - the funds raised will used to buy raw materials in China.
Also, Chinese loans make sense for companies that have nowhere else to turn. For example, the sanctioned Vnesheconombank, which avoided bankruptcy only thanks to government bailouts and a quick sale of its liquid assets, signed loan agreements for at least 16 billion yuan last year.
However, most lenders have come to the conclusion that there is no domestic demand for RMB loans, and a relatively small market swaps makes the transfer of funds into dollars economically unjustified.
Bulantsev said that although Asian capital markets have proved useless for Sberbank, new directions continue to be developed.
Chechnya and Iran
One of these experimental areas is Islamic banking - in 2016, a pilot agreement was concluded with a company from Tatarstan. This year, according to Bulantsev, the project may be implemented in several predominantly Muslim regions, including Bashkortostan, Chechnya and Tatarstan.
In addition, he said that a similar project in partnership with the Turkish Denizbank is under discussion, and the possibility of co-financing with Arab banks is also being considered.
Iran is also a promising partner. Bulantsev says:
“We are closely following the process of easing the sanctions regime in Iran. Despite the claimed progress, there are numerous restrictions on the ground. As soon as the opportunity arises, we will work.”
As for the situation at home, according to him, the stabilization of the economy had a “very positive” impact on the quality of the bank's assets. Demand for loans is growing weakly - lowered expectations from business affect.
Bulantsev said that as banks' profit margins decline, Sberbank plans to compensate by expanding its line of "non-lending" products, up to protection against cyber threats. He explains:
"The current money-credit policy does not encourage banks to increase loan portfolios. Companies will use every means to demonstrate to banks and regulators that real rates are too high.”
Prepared by Taya Aryanova
Details Belyaev Sergey Updated: October 20, 2019 Views: 92915When planning a trip to China, the choice of a bank card may become an urgent issue. How to save money when withdrawing money in China? How to pay in the store if there is no terminal with the VISA, Mastercard logo? Well, how not to overpay when withdrawing money from an ATM?
At the moment, each bank offers to issue bank cards of various payment systems. And the range of choice is huge, the status of the cards is also very wide. But let's see what losses we will incur when using cards and what inconveniences there are. So, which card to take to China?
We take VISA or MASTERCARD cards with us to China
Let's look at an example - Sberbank card. I can say that this is the most "expensive" bank card in terms of withdrawing money from an ATM of a Chinese bank. Not in the sense of annual service, but in the sense of using the card abroad, in particular here :) in the Middle Kingdom. So, from my own experience I can say that withdrawing money is sometimes not as cheap as Sberbank managers assure us. Why is that?
First. The exchange rate of the Central Bank is very different from the selling rate, of course, in the direction of increase, i.e. the bank converts the currency at the selling rate, since VISA is an American payment system, the transaction takes place in dollars, again at the selling rate.
Second. Sberbank takes a commission, although it does not advertise this. To find out what the commission for withdrawing money is, you need to order an extract to your email address, then you will definitely see all the movements on the account. Not all data is displayed in Sberbank Online.
More cons. You can withdraw money at any Bank of China, but paying for a purchase in a store will be a big problem. Not all merchants accept VISA or MASTERCARD. Of course, if you are in a large shopping center or in a specialized store for foreigners, there will be no problems, but there are corresponding prices, everything is expensive in such places. An ordinary, ordinary Chinese store with low prices, sadly, does not accept VISA or MASTERCARD cards. Again, it all depends on what city you are in.
Conclusion: Despite the fact that VISA or MASTERCARD cards, which are common for foreigners, are international cards, they are not convenient in China. In most cases, we can only withdraw cash from an ATM; paying for a purchase in a regular Chinese store will be problematic.
We take a UNIONPAY card with us
By the way, I am very happy that now in Russia you can get a card of China's national payment system UNIONPAY. The card is "issued" by MTS Bank, the card can be issued with a dollar, Russian or euro account. The status can also be different. "Instant" - issued within 15 minutes, no chip, no owner's name, and you can also issue a card "Classic", "Platinum", "Gold".
Withdrawing money from an ATM will not do without a commission, as a rule it is 1% -3%. In addition to MTS Bank, the commission is taken by the bank where the money is withdrawn.
But the big advantage of the UNIONPAY card is that any, yes, yes, even the smallest shop, a small shop in China, will accept this card for payment.
On the plus side, I can also say that the ready service of this card, regardless of status, will cost its owner only 300 rubles.
And yet, upon arrival in China, you should apply for and receive a UNIONPAY card at any bank in China, as I described in this post.
We take the Corn card from the Euroset.
Separately, I would like to draw attention to this map. "Corn" is a premium level card that provides access to additional promotions of the "Corn" and MasterCard programs, allows you to accumulate 1.5% of the amount of purchases around the world in the form of bonuses.
In addition, the minimum commission for withdrawing money is only 1%.
If you need to withdraw money when traveling to China, then it is most profitable to withdraw money from the Corn card. Issue only a personalized MasterCard World card, a regular card cannot be used for these purposes abroad.
For example, Sberbank calculates at the currency selling rate plus another expense item - the percentage for withdrawing money. As a result, an expensive exchange rate for withdrawing yuan comes out. Since the issuer of the Kukuruza card is not a banking credit organization, the calculation is carried out at the rate of the Central Bank.
In numbers it looks like this:
Sberbank withdrawal rate - 9.6 rubles for 1 yuan, Corn (including commission) - 9.1 rubles. for 1 yuan.
As you can see, there is a difference, although small, but there is.
So, withdraw money from an ATM with minimal losses from the Corn card, we make purchases with the UNIONPAY card.
Necessary applications on a smartphone in China. If you are going to go to China, then there is no way without them :-)
Money is the cornerstone of any stay in China, from visiting for tourism purposes to doing business.
Since China is a separate world with its own rules and nuances, we will tell you about all the points related to money: what money is better to fly to China with, how and where to exchange, how and where it is more convenient to pay, and much, much more!
Therefore, if you are going to visit China once, for example, the Canton Fair, or you are going to constantly work with Chinese suppliers and sellers, this information will definitely come in handy.
1 Cash in China (dollars, euros, rubles)
Everything is very simple here - no currencies, strictly yuan (RMB), of course, in mainland China, and in Macau and Hong Kong we will tell you about our own money and about them separately.
Therefore, you have only 2 options:
- Buy yuan before departure to China(at any of the banks that sell RMB)
- Arrive in China with cash in foreign currency
Option 1: we studied this issue in detail and came to the conclusion that buying yuan in Russian banks is not a good idea - it's trite, a very bad exchange rate.
Option 2: of the 3 main currencies - rubles, dollars and euros, it is best to fly with dollars, as they are the most popular and desirable for exchange with the Chinese.
(Euros and rubles can also be exchanged, but dollars are more liquid.)
The main disadvantage of cash in China: there is a danger that counterfeit yuan can be slipped into change, the most common cases of fraud in this regard are change in a taxi (Fake yuan in China -)
To avoid problems with fakes, it is better to have on hand or.
2 Exchange cash for Yuan
In China, you can exchange currency in 4 ways:
- bank exchange
Most likely, this is the very first method that comes to your mind. But there is one nuance here - the Chinese bureaucracy.
We specifically noted the time it took us to exchange a couple of hundred US dollars. If you are standing, then it is better to sit down: 1 hour 17 minutes.(an employee of the bank filled out various documents for exactly that much time)
- Fast, huh?
Our Russian bureaucratic procedures are just rubbish, compared to those that exist in China for currency exchange for foreigners.
Of course, there are banks where you can change money faster, but still it will not be 5-10 minutes, but much longer.
+ Main plus: there are a lot of banks, there will be no problems with the search for an exchange.
- The main disadvantage: a very long time.
- exchange in exchangers
Ordinary exchangers like we have in Russia.
Come - give money and get the equivalent in yuan at the rate.
The most important point: carefully recalculate the amount received. We didn’t notice cases where we would specifically like to shortchange, but we always need to recalculate!
+ Main plus: fast exchange:
- The main disadvantage: It is not easy to find such exchangers.
- market exchange
The bottom line is, just ask the seller in the market “change money?” and if the seller agrees, then just change it "with hands".
At the same time, the Chinese may ask you to go inside the outlet or even block you with your body from the passage so that you cannot be seen. Because they can fly in for such operations.
As a rule, the police turn a blind eye to this when it comes to small amounts (a couple of hundred dollars). And of course, sellers include a small benefit in the exchange rate, but how could it be otherwise.
+ Main plus: easy to find where to exchange:
- The main disadvantage: not exactly a legal operation.
– exchange in Cargo deliveries
If you have a representative in China, go to his office and easily change the amount you need at a good rate.
If you don’t have a representative yet, you can go to any cargo delivery office on Janshan Lu or Lihua Lu streets and you will be exchanged currency without any problems and will also be treated to tea 🍵.
+ Main plus: best exchange rate + free tea:
- The main disadvantage: everyone will offer their delivery services (we too 😉).
3 Plastic cards in China - Sberbank, Alfa-bank, Tinkov and others:
Ordinary VIZA/Mastercard plastic cards can only be used to withdraw cash, while ATMs dispense RMB, and your bank debits rubles from your account.
You will not be able to pay something directly from the card, since there are very few places that accept payment from VISA and Mastercard cards. (They are, for example, Chimelong Amusement Park). Therefore, it is easier to assume that there are no such places and immediately withdraw the required amount of money so as not to get into an awkward situation.
Plastic cards of which banks work in China (to withdraw money):
- Sberbank cards - work without problems;
- Alfa-Bank cards - work without problems;
- Tinkoff cards - work without problems.
Well, with a very high probability, all the cards of large Russian banks work without any problems.
They work in all ATMs where there is a VISA / MASTERCARD badge. There are no ATMs of Sberbank or ATMs that work in partnership with Sberbank in China.
When withdrawing money from a ruble account, a 2nd conversion occurs - that is, it immediately changes your rubles to dollars, and then dollars to yuan.
Commission when withdrawing money from Sberbank cards 1%(min. 100 rubles / 3 USD / 3 EUR) 
An important point - since VISA takes an additional commission when withdrawing yuan, it is more profitable to withdraw yuan from Mastercard cards!
Alfa Bank cards in China
They work in all ATMs where there is a VISA / MASTERCARD badge. There are no Alfa-Bank ATMs or ATMs that work in partnership with Alfabank in China.
Inside the Alfa-click application, you cannot open an account in yuan and convert rubles into yuan.
Tinkoff Bank cards in China
They work in all ATMs where there is a VISA / MASTERCARD badge, and also, when withdrawing up to 20,000 yuan per month (~ 200,000 rubles), there is no commission. (But you need to withdraw at least 400 yuan ~ 4000 rubles at a time.)
But, in excess of 20,000 yuan per month, then there will be a commission of 2% 😨.
⚠️ Important! Tinkov has the opportunity to open an account in yuan and avoid the double conversion of the ruble-dollar-yuan (as in Sberbank and Alfa-Bank), but simply transfer rubles from his ruble account to yuan.
But, here there is 1 more manipulation that you need to remember to do - this is, before withdrawing money from a Tinkoff debit card, be sure to make an account in yuan as the main, otherwise, if the ruble account remains the main one, you will withdraw yuan with double conversion 🤦♂️. 
Which bank has the best exchange rate for the yuan?
For the purity of the experiment, we withdrew money from debit cards of 3 banks - Sberbank (VISA and MasterCard), Alfa-Bank (VISA), Tinkoff (MasterCard).
Results (1 yuan to ruble taking into account the commission of banks):
1) Tinkoff - 9,41
2) Sberbank (MasterCard) - 9,85
3) Alfabank - 9,88
4) Sberbank (VISA) - 9,92
⚠️ But, this is true if you rent up to 20,000 yuan per month. If, conditionally, you will withdraw 500,000 rubles. per month, then Tinkoff will be the most unprofitable, so after 200,000 rubles, he will take 2% commission from 300,000 rubles, but Sberbank and Alfa-Bank will take 1% commission, regardless of the amount.
By the way, we also clarified the exchange rate of the ruble-yuan from the Chinese money changers at the TYAK/South Gate, and at that moment it was 9,85 .
Conclusions:
1) . If you live in China or are temporarily staying and do not plan to withdraw more than 20,000 yuan per month from Russian bank cards, then by far the best option is to have a Tinkoff debit card.
2) >20 000 RMB. If you will withdraw more than 20,000 yuan per month, then it is better to use your bank card (most likely, you will have a Sberbank card, but if it is different, then most likely there will be yuan exchange rates + - the same, and there is no point in bothering with issuance of other cards).
4 UnionPay plastic cards of Russian banks
We tested the UnionPay card of the Russian bank LightBank (LightBank).
In fact, any other UnionPay cards from Russian banks are not much different from each other. 
+ Advantages of Russian UnionPay cards:
- The commission for withdrawing money from ATMs is less than for debit and credit cards VIZA / Mastercard (benefit 8 kopecks from 1 yuan, that is, from 1 million rubles, a benefit of ~ 8,000 rubles.)
- Accepted in Chinese payment terminals
— Cons of Russian UnionPay cards:
- The places where UnionPay cards are accepted in China are official stores and other trading centers (these cards are useless for paying in markets and suppliers for goods.)
- These cards cannot be linked to WeChat Pay and Alipay
Our conclusion: Yes, Macau and Hong Kong are also China, but with their own peculiarities 😎 Course 1 Pataca Macau ~ 8 rubles.
If you enter Macau from China, you can easily exchange Chinese yuan for Pataca Macau at the crossing points.
Hong Kong money:
The currency is called Hong Kong dollar».
HKD designation 
The exchange rate of 1 Hong Kong dollar ~ 8 rubles.
If you are not our client, do not be afraid to contact us, we do not refuse advice to anyone.
In general, if you want to constantly work with China or are here on other issues, then the best way to solve money problems is to link this card with wallets and.
The Chinese card is easily tied to WeChat and Alipay wallets, money is also withdrawn from these wallets to this card, and the commission is 0.01% (to which Mao brought the country).
We hope that we were able to tell useful information about money in China.
If you have any questions - write in the comments or through the form and we will answer you!
It is very easy to withdraw money from an ATM in China with our Russian Visa or Mastercard.
And if you are reading this, then you probably decided to check the opinions of the tour operator and hotel guides.
I don’t know how things are with other operators, but with Anex and RosTour, statements about “terrible difficulties” with money are quite typical. Guides will never admit that money can be withdrawn from a nearby ATM without any problems, and will offer to turn this service through them, or change money at a high rate.
In China, as in our country, if there are many banks, and naturally, the conditions and withdrawal fees are different.
The main banks in China are: Bank of China, China Construction Bank, ICBC, China Merchants Bank. There are still a good nickel of other banks, but their ATMs are not so common.
All of them, as usual, work around the clock, and you are close to them. you won't find the Visa or Mastercard logo, which does not prevent them from working with these payment systems.
By the way, for those who want to see the process of withdrawing cash from a Bank of China ATM from a Sberbank card live, I have prepared video instruction on youtube.
Bank selection for withdrawal from Visa/Mastercard in Hainan (China)
Before choosing a bank, I read a lot of forums, and even went to the websites of the banks themselves in search of an adequate course and information.
Looking ahead, I can say that this was a useless affair, since the courses still on the spot are not the ones indicated on the site.
And not necessarily the rate will be higher, it will just be different.
Bank of China
The advantages of the bank is that ATMs can be found on every corner. As I understand it, this is something like an analogue of our Sberbank.
Course may vary from wonderful 8.6 to not very good 9.8 (June 2017).
Empirically, it was possible to establish that it depends on the amount of withdrawal: up to 1000 yuan, one rate is valid, and starting from a thousand and above, it is already more profitable.
China Construction Bank
Here in Hainan, CCB ATMs are rarer than Bank of China, not by much.
As far as I know, in the rest of China there is no problem with their shortage either.
The rates are somewhat worse (10.3), although this may be because I was withdrawing a small amount.
ICBC bank
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China also has a lot of ATMs in Sanya, mainly in the center, around Dadonghai Beach, and on Sanya Bay.
Their courses bite, but as an emergency option for withdrawing money, it will do.
Where to find ATMs in Hainan?
There are no problems with the number of ATMs in China, the very first ones will meet you at the airport. In the city itself, there is also an ATM every 300 meters, they are built right into the walls of buildings (in the photo below, they are), or they are an addition to a bank branch.
In this case, it is a separate room, next to the entrance to the bank, they are often air-conditioned and, by Chinese standards, are quite clean.
Commission for withdrawal from cards of Russian banks
I do not presume to judge all the banks in the country, especially such freaky ones as Avtogradbank or Express-Volga Bank, but most of the popular banks today have no commissions for cash withdrawals in China.
Please note that this is only for debit cards. 95% of banks will charge a fee for credit cards.
None extra money for cash withdrawal won't take from you Sberbank, OTPbank, Otkritie Bank, Alfabank, Binbank.
At VTB24, everything depends on the type of card, and as far as I know, there were commissions a few years ago.
By the way, despite the problem with the support of various mobile services, SberbankOnline works in China and you can track everything without any problems. Provided that you find a network connection, of course.
Trial withdrawal of 100 yuan from a Bank of China ATM in Hainan. Sberbank Online
Limits on cash withdrawals from the card in Chinese banks
As a rule, limits are applied to foreign currency withdrawals in China.
This does not depend on your card issuer, but depends on the mood of the Chinese bank, and on the varying terms of withdrawal that they can offer.
Typically, the withdrawal limit starts from 1500 yuan, and reaches the amount of 2500-3000 yuan.
Although, in the tourist area of China (Hainan) there may be ATMs that refuse to give you this amount at a time.
In this case, the option of withdrawing the amount in parts, in two neighboring ATMs, or in the same one, sequentially helps. :)
By the way, about withdrawing foreign money: here in Russia you can find ATMs with a multi-currency function, and withdraw, for example, dollars.
In China, I personally have not seen this, but perhaps they are in large metropolitan areas.
Citybank also operates in China, which is also known here, but there are very few of its ATMs here.
Is it profitable to withdraw cash from a card in China?
Perhaps that is beneficial, but you will have to sweat. For 2017-2018, Hainan has the most the best withdrawal rate was at Bank Of China, it was even more profitable for me to withdraw money there than to exchange dollars brought from Russia. On the other hand, the lack of information about the course before you withdraw money is already an element of inconvenience. Yes, and in China Construction Bank and ICBC, the rates are simply terrible.
Summing up, I would advise you to take care of cash before traveling to China and change rubles directly to yuan somewhere in local Russian banks.
In extreme cases, the rate will be the same (there is every chance that it will be better), but at the same time you will definitely not lose anything, plus save yourself from unnecessary trouble.
P.S.
On my Youtube channel, I posted a video of real money withdrawal from an ATM in China, with detailed instructions and tips.
Write your questions in the comments under the video, I will be happy to help. 🙂