Tinkoff Bank

Tinkoff Bank is built around remote-first retail banking, so the people who reach for it want cards, transfers, deposits and support without a branch visit. By our assessment, its real strength is the app-led experience: opening products, tracking spending and handling everyday money tasks are the centre of the service. The downside is that the whole model depends on comfort with digital banking; if someone wants a bank desk and paper routines, this is the wrong style. In practice it feels fast and app-heavy, with the customer interface doing most of the work that branches do elsewhere. Against old branch-based banks, Tinkoff Bank is much less traditional and much more product-driven. The catalogue marks it for Russia, which fits the way it is spoken of as a major online retail bank.