Yandex.Money and QIWI outlawed

[@InfoPoisk]

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has declared the illegality of the activities of the Yandex.Money and QIWI payment systems in Ukraine.

In the evening of July 1, 2011, the NBU issued a memorandum on the statements of individual non-resident companies regarding their entry into the payment market of Ukraine. By "individual companies" in this case we mean the payment systems Yandex.Money and QIWI, which issued statements on entering the Ukrainian market on March 15 and June 15, respectively.

The NBU document emphasizes that payment systems are required to coordinate their rules with the national bank, as required by article 9 of the law "On Payment Systems and Transfer of Funds in Ukraine." In addition, resident institutions must register membership agreements in international payment systems created by non-residents of Ukraine, in accordance with article 12 of the same law. Since neither one nor the other has been done, the activities of the Yandex.Money and QIWI payment systems in Ukraine are illegal.

Referring to the decision of its own board, the NBU also notes that only banks can issue electronic money in Ukraine. In addition, electronic money used in the country must be expressed in national currency (hryvnia). Russian payment systems also do not satisfy these requirements.

Another decision of the NBU board establishes a list of organizations that are allowed to "carry out operations with the acceptance of payments for subsequent transfer using self-service software and hardware systems." Such organizations include banks and non-banking institutions that have received an appropriate license from the state, as well as legal entities that have concluded agency agreements with banks. Yandex.Money and QIWI do not have such licenses and did not conclude agent agreements.

It is worth emphasizing that, according to the NBU, not only the payment systems themselves, but their use is illegal - both for individuals and legal entities.

Representatives of Yandex promised Webplanet to comment on the situation in the near future, but made it clear that Ukrainian users should not panic yet. QIWI payment system has so far refrained from any statements.

As explained by "Webplanet" in the press service of Yandex.Money, at the moment the company does not conduct direct work outside of Russia, including in Ukraine. Moreover, the requirements of the NBU do not contradict the provision of services to Ukrainian users in other countries: for example, Russia (as Yandex.Money does) or Singapore (as PayPal does).

Residents of Ukraine currently use Yandex.Money in the same way as they use the capabilities of other foreign services - for example, Skype, World of Warcraft or Facebook. The NBU did not say anything about restrictions on the work of Ukrainian Internet users with foreign projects on the Internet, the press service comments.

“We do not see anything unexpected in the NBU’s statement that Yandex.Money does not currently have the right to provide its services in Ukraine, because we understand the situation exactly the same. That is why we do not work in Ukraine yet, but we’re only considering the possibility of doing this, ”says Yevgenia Zavalishina, Yandex.Money CEO.“ In the meantime, we are providing services to a Russian company to our users, including from Ukraine. ”

Recall that in January of this year, the NBU issued a similar statement regarding the Webmoney payment system.

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Thank.