The regulator announced that CBR or The Central Bank of Russia has revoked the banking license of Qiwi Bank, operated by Qiwi, an e-payment system.
Qiwi is one of Russia’s most popular payment systems. Sergei Solonin, Boris Kim, and Andrei Romanenko founded it in 2007, and it operates under a banking license. Romanenko left QIWI in 2017.
The regulator closed the bank. They claimed that it carried out settlements between individuals and shadow businesses and generally operated on a high-risk model. This includes transfers of funds in favor of crypto exchangers, illegal online casinos, and bookmakers.
The Qiwi is the first bank that the CBR has closed in over a year and a half. This follows CBR governor Elvia Nabiullina’s appointment in 2013. She closed hundred of banks, about three a week, as part of her comprehensive clean up of the sector that nearly caused a banking crsis when she shuttered several of the so-called Garden Ring banks in 2018. It ranks among the largest privately-owned banks in Russia.
The organization established the bank in 2007. In that same year, it was launched e-wallets, its most popular service. Last 2010, the group acquired a bank and later branded it as Qiwi. In 2013, it help an IPO on Nasdaq. The number of electronic wallets registered in the Qiwi system reached 40mn by 2010. And the market share of electronic payments was 45%.
Aside from anonymity, the speed and ease of enrollment have made Qiwi the most popular payment system for participants in semi-legal and illegal markets.
The bank opened virtual wallets for individuals without their knowledge and carried out transactions using them. This is according to the CBR. In comments to law enforcement agencies, the bank also made transactions that have signs of committing criminal offences.
