On August 3 in Russia, amendments to the law «On the National Payment System» came into force, restricting cash top-ups to electronic wallets.
Users of services «Яндекс.Деньги», «Qiwi-Кошелек», WebMoney, PayPal, VK Pay and others are prohibited from making anonymous cash deposits through payment terminals and operator offices. To top up their cards, they must identify themselves and link a bank account to the wallet.
In addition to traditional electronic wallets, the amendments affect transport projects as well as school meal services.
The restrictions are part of the fight against terrorism financing and drug trafficking. In the view of Anton Kravchenko, CEO of Xena Financial Systems, this is a good solution for combating illicit activity. At the same time, cryptocurrency holders have nothing to fear.
“99% of cryptocurrency trading takes place on the legal plane. The market operates with companies that hold the licenses of financial regulators and identifiable individuals, therefore such a ban will not have a negative impact on the cryptocurrency market,” Kravchenko said.
ForkLog representatives said that the new rules will not radically change the operation of the payment systems. According to them, the main turnover of the company occurs through wallets of identified users, and anonymous wallets account for a negligible part of the product’s structure.
“All key risks associated with anonymous wallets have already been minimised thanks to regulatory restrictions implemented in the past years, so further reduction of the instrument’s functionality negatively affects users and business, limiting the attractiveness of the instrument itself — the electronic wallet,” Qiwi added.
Users who value anonymity of cashless payments are likely to prefer cryptocurrencies as an alternative, however such users are not numerous in Russia, noted independent expert Mansur Guseynov.
As explained by Dmitry Kryshstal, development director at MonolithosDAO, an ordinary user simply “has nothing to transfer” into cryptocurrency, and lacks the knowledge for such a decision.
“As long as in Russia there is no mass fines and control of micro-transactions of 500-1000 rubles conducted via Sberbank Online, the average Russian has no need to study cryptocurrencies or seek ways to preserve their privacy,” Kryshstal said.
The only thing that will complicate the ban on anonymous top-ups to electronic wallets is the process of buying and selling cryptocurrencies on the P2P market, adds the expert:
“But again, as long as there is no total control over money transfers between individuals in Russia, the P2P market will continue to exist in an almost unchanged form. This regulation will not affect large crypto purchase and sale transactions even in Russia, because they were generally conducted in a completely different format.”
According to the Association of participants in the electronic money and money transfer market, around 10 million people in Russia use anonymous electronic wallets. The services conduct more than 2 billion transactions annually totaling over 1.7 trillion rubles.
In July 2019, the Federation Council in Russia approved a ban on topping up electronic wallets without identity verification for their owners.
The FinTech Association and the Qiwi payment service opposed the initiative.
Experts say the new rule will not affect the popularity of cryptocurrencies.
In March 2019, amendments to the law «On the National Payment System» were adopted, prohibiting cash withdrawals from anonymous bank cards and electronic wallets, including cryptocurrency wallets.
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