The Central Bank linked the revocation of the QIWI Bank's license with transfers to crypto exchanges
Earlier, the Bank of Russia imposed restrictions against the QIWI payment system
The Bank of Russia revoked the license from QIWI (KIWI) According to the regulator's website, this is the first revocation of the license in a year and a half. In terms of assets, the credit institution ranked 89th in Russia.
The Central Bank explained the revocation of the license by the fact that the bank violated the laws and regulations of the Bank of Russia, and its activities "were characterized by involvement in high-risk transactions, including money transfers in favor of crypto exchanges."
At the end of July 2023, QIWI Bank limited the withdrawal of funds from wallets of the payment system of the same name to bank accounts and cards to 1 thousand rubles per month. At the same time, the Binance exchange, which was still operating in Russia at that time, disabled the ability to deposit funds through QIWI.
According to experts from the field of cryptocurrency exchange interviewed by RBC-Crypto, the QIWI system has naturally been losing popularity over the past five to six years due to artificial restrictions and deterioration of internal tariffs. It was inferior to bank transfers, including due to the increased popularity of p2p platforms, which in the last few years have become massively accustomed to users to exchanges directly from a bank card, without any intermediaries.
According to the regulator's observations, the number of illegal financial market participants who use cryptotematics is growing. The report of the Bank of Russia on countering illegal activities in this market reports that almost all pyramids and illegal brokers in 2023 offered investments in internal tokens or accepted contributions in cryptocurrency.
Source: https://www.rbc.ru/crypto/news/65d5a1d69a79471ca174dfb4
