"Robokassa" almost closed: Central Bank "took" the payment aggregators and their partners

Payment solution aggregators are having a hard time. The Central Bank of Russia withdraws licenses from banks with which the aggregators cooperate. On April 13, the Central Bank revoked the license from Ocean Bank , a friendly Robokassa , through which the system made most of the payments.

Then, “Robokassa” hastily concluded an agreement with RNKO “RIB” in order not to lose customers. However, soon the Central Bank forbade conducting operations with individual entrepreneurs and individuals and this bank.

On April 21, Robokassa was forced to suspend accepting payments in favor of individual entrepreneurs and individuals, blocking their stores.
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A few days later, the company managed to find another partner - KIWI Bank . On April 28, Robokassa announced that it was resuming payments. “After the connection is completed, the serviceability of the Robokassa service will be restored for both Individual entrepreneurs and Individuals,” the aggregator said.

QIWI Bank is a member of the Qiwi group of companies, which also includes the payment system of the same name and acquiring.

Due to the transfer of settlement operations to Qiwi Bank, the main methods of accepting payments, which constitute more than 90% of the needs of payers, will be restored in early May. Full availability of all payment methods for customers of the service will be implemented after May 10, the company said.

“By concluding a cooperation agreement with the Rokokassa service and assuming the functions of its settlement center, Kivi Bank minimizes the negative impact of the situation that has developed around the former settlement center. The activities of Qiwi Bank are closely related to settlements and payments within Qiwi. The bank is fully compliant with legal requirements. Now clients of Robokassa can do business with even greater confidence, ”the press service of Qiwi Group, which includes Qiwi Bank, told CNews.

One of the participants in the market of electronic payments told Roem.ru that Robokassa and so the whole of 2015 was losing customers, primarily because of interruptions in service and problems with the withdrawal of funds. This is partly confirmed by the research data of the MARC center: “Robokassa” lost the first place among payment solutions in the Yandex.Money e-commerce market.

According to MARC, in the fourth quarter of 2015, Yandex had a 24% market share, and Robokassa’s - 20%. A year earlier, the shares were distributed as 18% and 22% in favor of Robokassa.

Another source in the market believes that the Central Bank is up in arms against low-transparency payments in principle, and the problems with Ocean Bank and RIB are only the beginning of a mass “sweep”. In such a situation, “QIWI Bank” may be next, the source fears.

The claims of the regulator are not to the RIB, but to the aggregators themselves, but they do not fall under its supervision and regulation, unlike the NSC, explained one of the interviewees of Vedomosti.

Alexander Voskoboynkov, Vice-President of Money Online, believes that a partnership between Rokokassa and Qiwi can be the first step to buying Rokokassa:

Previously, Robokassa worked with banks that did not have their own interests in the online payment segment. The decision to choose “QIWI Bank” as a partner, whose parent company is a competitor of Robokassa [Qiwi, according to MARC, in 2015, took 45% of Russian e-commerce players as a means of payment] looks at least strange. Unless Qiwi plans to buy Robokassa and this partnership is the first step in this direction.

The problems of RNKO RIB with the Central Bank did not end there. According to Roem.ru, now the Vdolg.ru p2p lending service is experiencing similar problems, due to which RIB has also frozen part of its operations.