OREANDA-NEWS. December 10, 2008. Anton Tarasov, head of Sviaz-Bank’s Remote and Postal Banking Services Development Department, addressed the First Interregional Conference, Mobile Commerce 2008, devoted to innovative online methods of payment for goods and services, assembled in Moscow, reported the press-centre of Sviaz-Bank.

Mr. Tarasov said in his address that a key priority in 2009 for Sviaz-Bank, which is closely involved in the joint efforts to set up a General-Purpose Payment Platform by carrying out two projects, Mobile Payments and MegaPay Interactive Payment System, will be standardizing settlements adapted to payments for goods and services selectively by either traditional bank cards or over the Internet.

According to Anton Tarasov, the many advantages offered by online payments for transactions effected over the telephone make the project for developing mobile settlements especially attractive over cash or plastic cards. “The principal advantages of the project include, above all, expanding penetration of mobile communications in Russia and consequent low costs of infrastructure development,” Mr. Tarasov emphasized.

The conference was attended by representatives of government agencies that regulate the mobile commerce market in Russia, and delegates from Russian and foreign mobile communications operators and financial institutions.

The event was organized by the Infocommunications Union with support from the Russian Ministry of Telephone, Telegraph, and Mass Communications, and involved the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Duma.

The Union of the Infocommunications Services Market Participants (Infocommunications Union) was formed through transformation of the 3G Association of Third Generation Communications Networks Operators (3G Association) established in 1999 by Russia’s biggest operator companies. The Union’s membership comprises VympelCom, DeltaTelecom, MegaPhone, MobileTeleSystems, and the Moscow Cellular Communications companies.

It has 49 more companies and organizations in the associated member status. Transformation of the 3G Association into the Infocommunications Union (Union of the Infocommunications Services Market Participants) was registered officially in November 2006.