PAO Sberbank of Russia established SberX to coordinate the bank's digitalization efforts, the lender's deputy head Lev Khasis told RBC Dec. 14.

The new department will replace the current digital business development division and will be overseen by Sberbank Vice President Mark Zavadskiy.

SberX will oversee the lender's "ecosystem" that connects various companies and the lender's partners.

The Sberbank ecosystem, which is being developed by the lender under its 2020 strategy, currently includes 20 companies operating in fields such as e-commerce, medicine, telecommunications and cloud computing. The SberX concept could be used in the future as a basis for branding various elements forming the Sberbank ecosystem.

Sberbank CEO German Gref said earlier in December that the bank is increasingly becoming a technological company, so the word "bank" could disappear from the nonfinancial services provided by the lender, although it would still be used in reference to the financial part of the group.