Leading Russia’s Fintech Innovation with Oliver Hughes, CEO of Tinkoff
46:06 Share

In this podcast, Miguel Armaza sits down with Oliver Hughes, CEO of Tinkoff Bank- the leading Neobank in Russia and one of the largest fintechs in the world. The Tinkoff ecosystem offers a full range of financial services for individuals and businesses and has evolved into one of the largest super-apps of the region. Listed on the London Stock Exchange as well as the Moscow Stock Exchange, Tinkoff has a Market Cap of nearly $5 Billion with an ROE of 59%.

Oliver Hughes, Tinkoff CEO

At Tinkoff, Oliver Hughes is heading the team that is building Russia's leading financial ecosystem. He joined Tinkoff as CEO in 2007 right at the start of the project and has been at the helm every step of the way, helping Tinkoff grow into the world's largest independent digital bank with 11 m customers. Before joining Tinkoff, Oliver worked for Visa International for a decade, including as Head of Visa in Russia from 2005 until 2007. Prior to Visa, he held various positions including at Reebok, Shell UK and the British Library. Oliver holds a Master of Arts degree in International Politics from Leeds University and a Master of Science degree in Information Management and Technology from City University in London. He also has a Bachelor of Arts (First Class) degree in Russian and French from the University of Sussex.

Tinkoff Ecosystem

Tinkoff is an online financial ecosystem centred around the needs of its customers. The Tinkoff ecosystem offers a full range of financial services for individuals and businesses. With a focus on lifestyle banking, the Tinkoff ecosystem enables customers to assess and plan personal spending, invest their savings, earn loyalty programme bonuses, book trips, buy movie tickets, make restaurant reservations and much more.

All Tinkoff services are accessible via our mobile applications and on the Tinkoff.ru website. The Tinkoff ecosystem is branchless: its proprietary network of smart couriers can deliver the Company’s products anywhere in Russia in the shortest time span possible, and customer service is handled online and by call centres (both office and cloud-based). Tinkoff makes active use of AI and machine learning technologies to streamline communications: over 30% of customers' chat queries are resolved with no employee involvement.

All Tinkoff products and most of its IT systems have been developed in-house. Some 70% of the bank’s HQ staff are IT specialists.

At the core of the ecosystem is Tinkoff Bank, which was founded in 2006 and has since become one of the world’s biggest independent direct banks with over 10 million customers. In 2018, Global Finance named Tinkoff Bank the world’s Best Consumer Digital Bank, in 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2015, the Best Consumer Digital Bank in Russia, and in 2019, the Best Consumer Digital Bank in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2017 and 2013, the Banker recognised Tinkoff Bank as the Bank of the Year in Russia.

The bank’s parent company — TCS Group Holding PLC — has been listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Moscow Exchange. The 9M 2019 IFRS net income of TCS Group Holding PLC amounted to RUB 25.1 bn. The ROE was 59%.