Sberbank, one of the largest banks in Russia, in partnership with Internet Initiative Development Foundation (IIDF, or FRII in Russian) has announced the start of a joint programme to develop financial technology start-ups.

“Only together with partner companies is it possible for start-ups to enter new markets. The combination of IIDF’s business expansion expertise and access to Sberbank’s industry expertise will provide young teams with the unique capability to understand the specifics of the banking sector and in future enter this market,” commented Yevgeny Borisov, Development Director at IIDF.

The bank is interested in start-ups working on projects involving financial services, personal finance management systems, big data and analysis, optimisation of the processes of financial organisations, financial advisors and loyalty programmes. The primary requirement is for projects that develop financial or existing banking or other services and solutions by providing a convenient, low-cost, secure and transparent ecosystem of services for retail and corporate clients.

Projects will be selected and developed as part of IIDF’s Accelerator. Sberbank will review start-ups that have a team of at least two people, the proper legal registration for their project, and a ready prototype or demo version of a product that can be presented to users. The bank’s experts will mentor and provide expert support to the fledgling teams for the duration of the accelerator.

“We will engage the most promising start-ups in order to help solve the tasks that Sberbank is facing,” commented Mikhail Erenburg, Senior Vice President, Director of the Digital Business Development Directorate at Sberbank.

CoinFox reported that at the conference “Sberbank & FRII: Opportunities for FinTech Startups”, directors of two Sberbank’s digital business projects Ilya Etko and Andrey Popov outlined their expectations about their announced Accelerator and the general role of the blockchain. Ekto and Popov said that the distributed ledger technology has all the chances to “turn the economy upside down”.

Interested candidates can submit their applications until June 23, 2016 inclusive. The accelerator will begin on September 22, 2016. The best start-ups will receive investment from the bank, as well as the opportunity to launch joint pilot projects.