Tinkoff Investments, a Russian brokerage firm has enabled customers to give gift stocks or a share in a company.
Dmitry Tarasov, head of investment services development and promotion at Tinkoff Investments said that customers can now gift stock of the item manufacturer, or a share in any company. The service is known as “Gift Now”
“This way, they can make the recipient a co-owner of the company, whether it’s Russian children’s goods retailer, Detsky Mir, Apple, or Harley Davidson. The owner can then decide whether to sell their stock or invest in its future growth,” he said.
The eligible stocks include those available to non-qualified investors who have not yet cleared the Bank of Russia’s mandatory test for trading complexes financial instruments, such as stocks, bonds, or shares of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Customers need to tap on the “Gift Now” button on the page of the Tinkoff Investments mobile app to specify the number of shares and select the phone number of the recipient. A text message or “gift notifications will be sent to the recipient. If the recipient is not yet a Tinkoff client, he will then receive a gift notification and a link with a request to open a brokerage account and a debit card.
These stocks or shares can be given at any time, regardless of the schedule of exchange. If you buy shares as a gift on your day off, then the settlements are made based on the closing price of the previous trading day. If the recipient refused the gift, the funds spent for the purchase of the shares will be refunded to the donor’s account.
Tinkoff claims to be the first among Russian brokers to realise the opportunity to issue securities as a gift. Tinkoff is part of a wider online financial services ecosystem. At the core of it is Tinkoff Bank, which was founded in 2006. The bank is now the third-largest in Russia, with 16.7 million customers.
Promote financial literacy in Russia
Tinkoff recently launched an Investment Academy, which is a countrywide educational initiative aimed at strengthening financial literacy. The academy will serve as an aggregator of many financial courses and investment education programmes available in Russia, including financial literacy initiatives and Tinkoff’s proprietary courses. The content will be provided by Tinkoff’s strategic partners.
These educational materials cover the stock market, financial instruments, capital management, macroeconomics and analytics. The institute plans to present this content in the form of podcasts, video lessons, and other video formats.
The initiative was brought as part of Tinkoff’s environmental social and governance (ESG) strategy to increase the financial literacy rate of the Russian population.