Russia-based Tinkoff is launching a micro-investing service called Investment Box in its app. This way, Tinkoff’s customers will be able to save small amounts of money regularly while using their debit cards for purchases.
The mechanism will then invest the savings in the bank’s permanent portfolio exchange-traded funds. According to Tinkoff’s statement, this new service is a brokerage account that combines features of a savings bank account and an ETMF.
The bank’s portfolio of exchange-traded mutual funds (ETMFs) include stocks, corporate and government bonds in various currencies, as well as gold. This “Permanent Portfolio Strategy” is expected to help in saving and making money during the upcoming crisis but also in times of stability. The average historic return for this fund strategy stands are at 14% in rouble terms, 7% in US dollars and 6% in euros.
This “Investment Box” option will be integrated into Tinkoff’s ecosystem. The goal is to encourage customers to start saving and make small investments. Tinkoff’s Investment box does resemble Revolut’s Vault feature in a lot of ways.
Ruslan Muchipov, CEO of Tinkoff Capital, said, “Many people are keen to start investing, but they typically face two types of hurdles, according to our surveys. They do not know where to begin and what company to turn to with their money.”
“To resolve this, people need to gain a deeper understanding of finance and find a specialized service to help them invest. Micro investing addresses these issues and has been gaining popularity abroad with such services as Stash and Acorns, which serve some five million clients each,” he added.
Investment Box is available to holders of Tinkoff Black debit cards and Tinkoff Black Metal premium debit cards. To start using this tool, customers need to launch their Tinkoff mobile app, select “Apply for new product” and then “Apply for Investment Box”. They will then receive an SMS to confirm the account has been opened.
