Last year, Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch extended the number of foreign currencies that one could freely exchange to eleven. Alongside with the traditional U.S. dollars and Euros, Sberbank’s Ural branch now deals with the UK pounds sterling, Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, Czech korunas, Swedish kronas, Ukrainian hryvnias, Chinese yuans, Japanese yens, and Kazakh tenges. The U.S. dollars and Euros are still the most popular currencies with the bank’s customers, although the demand for the pounds sterling keeps increasing as well.


The bank now owns twenty-four ATMs that allow a customer to buy foreign currency without a clerk’s help. All in all, people bought $340,000 worth of foreign currency through these ATMs in 2007.