Vitalie, I propose to hook the audience with the first question, and then to begin to untwist the clew. I’ll not mistaken when I think that you stood at the origins of three “digital banks” in Russia, one of which is Tinkov’s bank, will I?

Almost. There really were three banks, but the second one was a project for Sberbank and BNP Paribas, and the task was to create a new banking unit. Tinkov and, later, Touch Bank, were completely “digital”.

And you were born in the Taraclia district...

Hirtop village.

Now, let's untwist the clew, how a Moldavian from Hirtop created the most complicated fintech products in Russia ...

I'm afraid that the story will be monotonous and more like a CV…

It seems monotonous to you. Tell…

In 1990 I graduated from Chisinau University, but by then I was already working at the Institute of Mathematics, my specialty was computers and applied mathematics. I even began to write a PhD thesis on the subject “pipeline computations and artificial intelligence”. But I didn’t finish it ...

I worked for “Coca Cola” for two years as an IT Manager, then a year as Director of the IT Department at “Banca de Economii”and then, for almost ten years, until 2006, as Director of the IT Department at “Victoriabank”.

And then - Moscow, Tinkov? How did he find you in Chisinau?

He found me in Moscow and there was still an intermediate period. I then was made an interesting offer to get involved in consulting. Head of department at IBM Global Business Services. Management of bank transformation projects. When I was there, upon the recommendation, I was invited to a meeting at Tinkov.

As far as I remember, the meeting was held opposite the Golden Palace casino in Moscow, Oleg had an office there. Tinkov then bought the license of the small Khimmashbank, and began to remake it into a fully digital bank. He was looking for a start-up IT Director; but no one had any special experience in Russia. I was recommended to him. The first meeting was short, about five minutes. He told how everything was arranged at him, “I have trusted people, they are around like planets, and I’m the Sun” and gave me time to think. On the second day, they called me and proposed to become a Project Director with an eye on the position of Chief Information Officer.

Did you agree?

Yes, I did. The work had a very hard rhythm. Tinkov knows how to set it perfectly. He sometimes pretends to be like “I'm neither a manager, nor a businessman”, but in fact he is a smart, tough and demanding businessman. For three months, we already replaced the ABS and launched the first card. A potential client filled out an application on the basis of a questionnaire, we scanned the application and sent the cards by Russian post. Later, the legislation became a little tougher and we began to work with couriers.

How large was this work from the inside? We see only the shell outside, the interfaces...

The scale can be determined by the number of IT departments in my subordination. When we started the project, in the first week we hired only 3 people in the IT Department, and when I left Tinkov, I already had 80 people in the unit. Now there are about 1000 people in Tinkov group of companies engaged in IT activities.

Why did you leave?

For health reasons. Now I don’t have such problems, but then I could not work with such a load. We parted from each other very friendly. I left my place to my deputy, and transferred the affairs more than one day.

In theory, after the Tinkov bank you should have entered the “golden cage” of professionals, shouldn’t you?

I don’t know how to get into the “golden clip”, but when I started to work again, I had job offers. I chose the BNP Paribas Personal Finance project, which later turned into a joint banking project of Sberbank and the BNP Paribas group. It was the most difficult, it was necessary to close one bank and transfer the other to its license, it was not a digital bank yet, but a “real” one. The project attracted me and I worked in this project for five years, also as CIO. Now it is “Cetelem Bank”, with the brand name BNP Paribas PF, but at the same time, Sberbank owns a 80% stake. The bank is a leader in the field of car loans in Russia, although the project started with consumer loans.

Before the interview, I looked at your LinkedIn profile. There are a few more points worth mentioning …

Yes. There was a second project of a “digital” bank - Touch Bank. Then I worked at the Finstar financial holding, and managed to launch another digital Bank - Binbank Digital, I worked even for 6 months at Alfa Bank. This, probably, was the largest project where I worked - if, for example, I had 330 people at BNP Paribas/Cetelem, then I had already 2,200 people worked in the IT Department of Alfa Bank. But I often was thinking more and more about my own project and independent work.

And now?

And now I’m the founder and managing partner of three relatively small companies. All are called AC Tech and are registered in Moscow, Chisinau and Bucharest. We are engaged in several areas. We build digital banks, advise how to create a product line and make risky decisions, act as a service company, with customers in Russia, Ukraine and Romania.

Do you have your own product? Or just services?

There is front end Internet and mobile banking. Now we are considering its pilot launch, we are choosing a region. It can be Ukraine, Romania or Bulgaria.

Have you thought about Moldova? Sometimes it’s sad to look at the level of Moldovan banking services online...

For us, as for a food company, Moldova is a small market. If we would want to work here, then it would rather be consulting. But, my partners convince me that it’s worth paying attention to the local market, since everything in Moldova will change quite quickly too. Otherwise, some Revolut will come and “cover” with itself the entire field of financial services.

Not funny. I’ve seen Revolut cards at two of my friends over the past two days.  And by the way, what do you think about the banking (financial) prospects of Apple, Google, Facebook. Do they also plan to deal with fintech?

Yes, they will actively do this, and they are already doing it, but notice, while being in partnership with banks - Goldman Sachs, Citigbank... I think that national regulators will “cut them off” very hardly. No National Bank wants to lose control over the monetary circulation in their country.

To end on a positive note, how many Moldovans work for you in three countries?

Not less than half. 20-25 people. And, in general, we have an international team – it’s difficult to find such an aggregate experience like at us, anywhere in the world.

I like to support the Tech Women project. In my opinion, the IT sector will only benefit from the fact that there will be more energetic and professional women. So, don’t miss the next event as part of the Tech Women project. Find more information here

Pavel Zingan