Reliable balance: fees for cross-border payments from the Russian Federation have dropped 2-3 times

Agency fees for cross-border payments from Russia have dropped two to three times. In 2025, they decreased from an average of 5% to 2%, and for large parties — to 1.5%. The reason is that the business has worked out many translation options. This allows us to bring more and more goods to the Russian Federation, which increases competition and, as a result, is beneficial to customers. The payment market has become more balanced: businesses have learned to live under sanctions. Whether this reduces the prices of imported goods is discussed in the Izvestia article.

How payments abroad are conducted in 2025

Cross-border payments have fallen sharply in 2025. If in the previous year the commissions reached about 4-5%, then this year they may amount to only 2%, said Alexey Razumovsky, commercial director of Impaya Rus. However, their size is always linked to the payment amount. The more money is sent abroad, the cheaper it will be, the expert said. In some cases, transactions are conducted through third countries.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov

Alexey Poroshin, CEO of First Group JSC, agreed: in particular, the payment situation has improved this year with one of the company's closest trading partners, and the cost of transactions has decreased several times. He added: in 2024, agency commissions reached 5-7%. And now there are offers for large deals already at 1.5%. Now the business transfers less for both agency (through intermediaries) and direct payments — this is due to the development of such transactions.

Increasingly, Russian companies are using the services of payment agents — these are firms that can pay suppliers in another country in local currency or dollars, explained Shahen Grigoryan, CEO of FEM-Master.

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Olga Shoall, Commercial Director of Novasmart, also confirmed the reduction of agency commissions several times this year. According to her, they now average 2-3%. There are also non-bank agency solutions in which you can give less than 0.5% when transferring from $ 100 thousand.

This price reduction is primarily due to increased competition among intermediaries, which account for 70-80% of the payment market, and the optimization of payments through third countries, the expert explained. The demand for agency services is growing, and many offers and new companies have appeared on the market, continued Ekaterina Kizevich, CEO of the importing company Atvira, an expert in the field of foreign economic activity. However, not all of them are workers, she warned.

Photo: Global Look Press/Soeren Stache

There are agents who offer complex transfer schemes — through several countries, and this leads to an increase in the cost of goods. Additional links in the supply chain may arise, and there is a risk of additional customs charges. Some agents also offer transactions in cryptocurrency, but it is prohibited in a number of countries, and this should be monitored, Ekaterina Kizevich noted.

Direct payments also work — a large number of Russian banks have opened correspondent relationships, and they also use offsetting of claims (that is, they do not send the payment itself, but document the amounts on both sides for incoming and outgoing transactions), Alexey Poroshin added. According to him, the situation with transactions has now stabilized.

Is the price of imported goods decreasing

This reduction in fees and the development of ways to conduct transactions means that the payment market has become more balanced, and Russian businesses have learned to live under sanctions, said Roman Tikhonov, director of products at Paygine fintech company. Most Russian banks are still cut off from SWIFT, and direct transfers are hampered by sanctions restrictions.

However, the companies have adapted: they have mastered alternative routes, have become more active in using payments in national currencies and have established work with payment agents in friendly countries, Roman Tikhonov emphasized. According to him, the main directions of cross—border payments from Russia now are the CIS countries (especially Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan) and other friendly jurisdictions like Turkey, the UAE, and China.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Andrey Erstrem

All this contributes to the fact that the import of goods to Russia is growing. According to the Federal Customs Service, in January – April 2025, the volume of imports to our country increased by 1.8% to $85.8 billion. Trade with Europe has declined slightly, but growth is noticeable with Africa, Asia, and even America.

The development of agency schemes is actively used in trade with Asia, whose share is steadily growing and already reaches 70%, explained Alexey Tarapovsky, founder of Anderida Financial Group. He added: moreover, this will allow for flexible pricing and often has a positive effect on the final price.

Cheaper transfers, coupled with a stronger ruble this year, also led to sellers starting to reduce the cost of a number of goods (if the dollar exchange rate was above 100 at the beginning of the year, now the "American" is worth 78 rubles). Because of this, laptops, smartphones and other gadgets have fallen in price by 10-20%. The trend began to be fixed at the beginning of the year, but it continued in March and April, Izvestia wrote.

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Household appliances in Russia in April-May 2025 also decreased in price by 10-20% compared to the first months of the year. Against the background of a stronger national currency and high competition, retail had to quickly change price tags.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Eduard Kornienko

Reducing fees for cross—border payments reduces the cost of payments, but the impact on the final cost of goods is minimal - up to 5-7%, Olga Shoall estimated. This is because logistics and compliance (payment verification) remain expensive. Nevertheless, this allows, at least, not to increase the cost of products against the background of inflation and high business costs for servicing loans.

The dollar exchange rate affects prices for end consumers more, added Alexey Razumovsky from Impaya Rus. At the same time, the development of agent payments makes it possible to bring more and more different goods to Russia and increases competition.