Russia is one of the biggest emerging economies on the planet, and has one of the largest national banking markets in the world, but innovation comes slowly within the banking sector due to massive technology and process issues. However, in the last few years there has been an explosion of innovation through start-ups, new brands and new technology players that in FinTech that appears second only to Silicon Alley . What has inspired such dynamic change in the Russian banking market? Who are the new players that are making strides, and how are the big banks in Russia responding to these innovative new players? This week we talk to Daniel Gusev, co-founder of FinFit, a new Russian start-up that is trying to help Russians save through gamification, and to Mircea Mihaescu, the Head of IT Strategy and Technology Innovation at Russia’s largest bank Sperbank. Mircea talks about their $100m investment to modernize and innovate Sperbank, whereas Daniel talks about the start-up scene generally in Russia and the challenges banking faces as consumer demand for technology-enablement skyrockets.