Russia’s biggest lender, Sberbank, will soon offer its customers to do their banking with a side-order of Big Mac and fries after a cooperation deal agreed between the state-owned banking giant and U.S. burger chain McDonald’s, Interfax reported.
Under the agreement, signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the companies intend to partner in card acquiring and a number of other more innovative areas such as using technical systems to analyze data, developing consumer behavior analysis systems, speeding up bank card payments, developing a payroll project for employees, and the opening of a pilot branch of the bank in a McDonald’s outlet.
“Cooperation between Sberbank and McDonald’s will combine global opportunities and international quality standards with cutting-edge technology such as AI and big data analysis. All of this will allow us to provide innovative and highly convenient services to clients,” said Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy chairman of Sberbank.
In February, McDonald’s said it would raise investment in Russia by 40 percent this year. The fast-food giant plans to open 60 new restaurants in the country by the end of 2019 after adding 40 outlets to the chain in 2018.
The McDonald’s network in Russia brings together more than 680 quick-service restaurants, which are visited by more than 1.5 million customers every day. The total investment of the company in Russia amounted to more than 61 billion rubles ($930 million).
Russian banks have already carried out projects to expand the functionality of branches with non-banking services. In particular, Otkritie Bank has integrated elements of coffee shop chain Starbucks into several of its offices.
