Sberbank, headquartered in Moscow, is the oldest and largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe and is expected to be MoneyGram's largest agent in the region. The bank will introduce MoneyGram services initially in more than 7,000 locations with plans to expand to 10,000 bank branches.

"Joining MoneyGram's international agent network will provide us the opportunity to meet our customer needs by supplementing our services and growing our international money transfer business to CIS and other markets around the world," said Denis Bugrov, first deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank. "We look forward to a successful partnership with MoneyGram."

"We are extremely pleased to have the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation, and its vast number of locations, join our growing, global agent network," said Nigel L. Lee, MoneyGram's executive vice president of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. "While MoneyGram has an established strong presence in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), we hadn't yet tapped into the full potential that Russia, one of the largest send countries, can offer our business. The agreement with Sberbank represents a significant opportunity to increase our reach and competitiveness in the region."

Russia is the third largest send market in the world after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Countries that receive the most in remittances originating in Russia are: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Russia is also in the top 20 receive countries in remittances.