Qiwi Bank says no signs of bankruptcy amid Russian licence revocation

Qiwi

26/02/2024 20:00

Feb 26 (Reuters) - Digital bank Qiwi, whose Russian
licence was revoked by the Russian central bank earlier this
month, said on Monday it saw no sign of bankruptcy in its
operations and a liquidation process agreed in January should
proceed without difficulty.
    Nasdaq-listed Qiwi  QIWI.O , a Russian analogue to PayPal,
had 29 million users at the end of 2022 and 13.8 million active
wallets.
    The Russian central bank, which has taken regulatory action
against Qiwi five times in the last year, said Qiwi Bank had
engaged in high-risk operations.
    "To our knowledge, QIWI Bank had no signs of bankruptcy,"
Qiwi said in a statement.
    "Thus, after the liquidation procedure, the remaining
capital should be transferred to its owner, JSC QIWI."
    The Qiwi statement added that there was "no certainty on how
the situation will continue to develop, what time will be
required for the liquidation, and whether any funds at all will
be available to JSC QIWI after the liquidation".
    Payment services used by Russians to transfer money overseas
were knocked offline last week after the central bank revoked
Qiwi's licence, sending its Moscow-listed shares plummeting
almost 50% to a record low. 
    Russia's Deposit Insurance Agency (ASV) said compensation
payments would start being paid by March 6.
    The company said in January it had entered into an agreement
to sell its Russian assets and had thus completed a
restructuring process. It said the sale of the Russian business
was expected to secure its continued listings on both the Nasdaq
and Moscow Exchange.

 (Reporting by Ron Popeski; 
Editing by Sandra Maler)
 ((Ronald.Popeski@thomsonreuters.com;))