Qiwi Bank has enough funds to return money from e-wallets during bankruptcy - Central Bank

MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) -Qiwi Bank should have enough funds to return money from e-wallets during its bankruptcy proceedings, the Central Bank of Russia's press service told reporters.

The law on deposit insurance states that funds in e-wallets are not covered by insurance.

"These funds will be returned during the bank's forced liquidation or bankruptcy from proceeds from the sale of its assets and other property. According to the Bank of Russia's preliminary assessment, the bank will have enough funds to return money from the electronic wallets of citizens," the regulator said.

It said the bank's business model was largely based on high-risk wallet transactions and transfers, including for illegal gambling and crypto-exchangers. In addition, stolen funds were transferred in favor of droppers and other illegal financial services.

"We carried out a lot of systemic work with the bank to scale down its involvement in such operations, but the bank constantly used various schemes and ways to circumvent our measures," the Central Bank said.

It said it had taken action against the bank five times over the past 12 months, twice requiring the introduction of restrictions on certain transactions.

The bank, without informing individuals, opened Qiwi wallets with their personal data on numerous occasions and conducted operations with them, it said.

The Central Bank revoked Qiwi Bank's license on Wednesday.