CBR files lawsuit against Qiwi Bank

MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has filed a lawsuit against Qiwi Bank, as follows from the Moscow Arbitration Court filing.

The lawsuit was filed on March 14 on behalf of the CBR's branch for the Central Federal District. Other details of the claim have not been disclosed yet.

Interfax made a request to the CBR.

The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) on behalf of the Qiwi Bank on March 4 filed a lawsuit against its owners: JSC Qiwi, Hong Kong's Fusion Factor Fintech Limited and Qiwi. The agency wants to challenge the agreement of purchase and sale of shares of JSC Qiwi and invalidate the contract of pledge and encumbrance of these shares. The claim was later left without any action until April 5 due to underpaid state duty. As of now, the violations have been removed. The case hearing is scheduled for April 16. As part of this case, the court on April 2 will consider the application of DIA represented by the Qiwi Bank on interim measures in the form of seizure of JSC Qiwi shares owned by Qiwi plc or Fusion Factor Fintech Limited.

On February 21, the CBR revoked the license of the Qiwi Bank for banking operations. The Qiwi Bank currently has a temporary administration, its functions are entrusted to the DIA.

Qiwi Group in late January 2024 sold Russian assets consolidated under JSC Qiwi to Hong Kong-based Fusion Factor Fintech Limited, which is owned by former Qiwi plc CEO Andrei Protopopov. The price of the deal amounted to 23.75 billion rubles. The deal includes Qiwi Bank, Qiwi Wallet, Qiwi business, Contact money transfer system, Rowi, Realweb, Flocktory, Taxiaggregator, IntellectMoney and a number of other assets.

The Qiwi Bank ranked 73rd in terms of assets in the Interfax-100 ranking compiled by Interfax-CEA at the end of 2023 with assets totaling 77.6 billion rubles.