Gref called Apple's departure an incentive to create a "smile payment" system

The withdrawal of the American Apple corporation from the Russian market became an incentive for the introduction of "smile payment" technology. This was announced on February 27 by the head of Sberbank, German Gref, during a conference call with analysts and investors.

"To be honest, we have to thank Apple, which imposed sanctions by disabling NFC. It was their answer that we don't need any iron objects, we don't need them in order to make transactions, get on the subway, and so on," he quotes RIA Novosti.

Gref added that restrictions on paying for purchases using a phone without a card on Apple devices led to the development of a domestic biometrics system.

The head of Sberbank clarified that the number of terminals that accept "smile payments" is only going to increase.

In January, Izvestia found out that would appear in Russia. href="https://iz.ru/1824927/2025-01-20/sber-i-nspk-obedinat-servisy-oplaty-licom-vo-vtorom-polugodii-2025-go " target="_blank">a single service for biometrics payments from the largest market players. It was noted that the launch of cross-bioequaring from the largest Sberbank bank and the Mir card operator (National Payment Card System — NSPK) is scheduled for the second half of 2025. Sber will also connect to the NSPK bioequaring, which will be an important step towards the development of this payment method.