Russian Central Bank has not identified cases of theft of funds from Qiwi Bank clients' wallets

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The Russian Central Bank did not uncover cases of theft of funds from clients' electronic wallets during an inspection of Qiwi Bank, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Olga Polyakova said in an interview with Interfax.

"We have not identified cases of direct material damage to clients, for example, theft from their electronic wallets. However, we have recorded a significant number of cases when the bank issued wallets to people who were completely unaware of it. And these wallets can be used by attackers to conduct all sorts of illegal transactions, compromising innocent people," Polyakova said.

Qiwi Bank was known not only for its settlement service, but also for the services it provided for transactions with crypto exchangers, transfers to the shadow gambling business, transfers of stolen funds in favor of droppers (dummy persons withdrawing funds received from the victim of fraud) and other illegal financial services, she said.

The Central Bank repeatedly applied measures to the bank, but the credit institution kept finding new ways to circumvent them. "The problem is that not only did it not listen to us, or try to correct its mistakes, but that every day it created an increasing amount of risks for citizens and the stability of the financial sector," the deputy chairman said.

The regulator plans to consider expanding the deposit insurance system to cover funds in citizens' electronic wallets.

"For the future, we have to evaluate two important changes to current regulations. The first is insuring citizens' funds held in electronic wallets. The second is the improvement of the identification procedure when a bank interacts with its clients through third parties, for example, bank payment agents," Polyakova said.