Yandex plans to start working in the banking and financial sectors, Vedomosti reports. The company has filed applications for the registration of 17 trademarks that refer to the economic sphere.

      Back in the spring, the company filed applications for registration of marks "YaBank", "YaKredit", "YaBirzha", "YaBroker", "YaVklad", "YaKapital", "YaStrakhovka", "YaSchet", "YaPortfel", "YaSberezheniya", "YaSafe", "YaAcquiring", "YaPerevod", "YaValyuta", "YaTrade", "YaAktsii" and "YaKash". The publication notes that at that time it seemed just a preventive measure, but after the sale of Yandex.Money, the situation changed.

      The company refused to talk about plans for these trademarks. “We often register trademarks or patents, but not all of them will find use in the future. This is a normal practice for large IT companies," - a spokesman for Yandex said.

      Associate Professor at RANEPA, Adviser to the General Director of Otkrytie Broker for Macroeconomics Sergey Khestanov believes that the Russian technology giant is interested in creating an ecosystem. “Almost all large IT companies are trying to develop services related to either payments or lending simply because the amount of data they have about the user allows them to determine the financial needs and capabilities of the user  correctly and efficiently,” he notes.