![]() ![]() Russian Rocket tried to fill out this application:Īnd was able to proceed all the way to the payment for Visa card issuance Source: user experience told on Russian Reddit analog - the link to the post is here On average, a VISA card arrives at the indicated address in Crimea within two weeks. When filling out the application on QIWI website, users input any other region of Russia into the "Region" field, and fill all other information, including postal code, for their location in Crimea. At first look, QIWI website is designed to prevent issuing VISA cards to people in Crimea: both Crimean Republic and Sevastopol are not in the drop-down list of regions when filling out a VISA card application. QIWI is not supposed to send VISA cards to people who live in Crimea. QIWI wallet then may be used for transferring money between users, payments for services and making money transfers to any financial institution in Russia. In Crimea, QIWI terminals are primarily used to top up QIWI wallets with cash. The appearance of QIWI terminals in Crimea is no different from other regions of Russia, and the same choice of operations is available to users. Russian Rocket's friend traveled to Crimea and confirms that QIWI terminals function both in Simferopol and Sevastopol and are rather popular among locals because there are no other options for e-wallets. Some terminals have been recently reviewed by the users, and the phone number indicated belongs to QIWI support: However, a search on Yandex.Maps discovers that at least 21 QIWI terminal functions in Crimea: QIWI official website suggests that there are no QIWI terminals in Crimea: Russian Rocket decided to investigate QIWI Crimean operations. The breach of the sanctions regime may result in direct sanctions against QIWI and the entities who control the company, as well as the discontinuation of partnership with Visa. QIWI users undergo the process of identification in branches of Genbank, which is under the US Sanctions.The company delivers Visa (NYSE: V) cards to Crimea bypassing the sanctions.However, a Telegram channel in Russia has recently reported that QIWI (NASDAQ: NASDAQ: QIWI) operates in Crimea in three ways: With Visa’s backing, theQiwi Wallet stands a good chance of becoming a major player in the e-commercemarket as it matures.įor more information on the Russian payments market and thee-commerce segment in particular, see Mercator Advisory Group’s researchreport, Introduction to the RussianPayment Market, published in April 2013, and look for an upcoming webinaron the topic.No Russian public bank, mobile operator or oil company operates in Crimea because of the fear of sanctions. However, the potential for the payment segment is there, and accordingto Mercator Advisory Group estimates, the e-commerce market could grow byupwards of at least 25 percent in the coming years. The success of the Qiwi and the Visa Qiwi Wallet will relyon jump starting the e-commerce market because currently Russia’s e-commercemarket accounts for no more than 2% of retail sales according to industrysources. Furthermore,payment volume on the wallet jumped 107 percent in Q1 to $1.73 billion and theaverage volume per wallet was $133. According to filings, the Visa Qiwi Wallet made morethan $16.2 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2013. Since its creation, the wallet has enjoyedgreat success to date. Qiwi then passes on a portion of the processing feeto its agents who run the kiosks. When Qiwi account holders make a transaction, the merchantpay Qiwi a processing fee. To boost it competiveness,Qiwi offers Visa branded virtual wallets, which allow customers to pay billsand make purchases using their cellphones in the e-commerce marketplace. According to Qiwi, morethan 47,000 merchants accept payments over its network and that more than 60million consumers use the network at least once a month. With more than 165,000 nonbank self-service payment kiosksin Russia and other former Soviet Republic states, Qiwi allows account holdersto deposit cash at the kiosks and then pay bills or top off mobile-phoneminutes without ever having to enter payment card data. With electronic payments very much in its infancy in Russia(estimates by Russia’s Central Bank suggest 90% of Russians use cash to paybills and make purchases) Qiwi and Visa have teamed up to boost e-commerceacross the country. ![]()
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