Russia: regulators` proposal could strike against the likes of Paypal, Webmoney

PayPal received a license from Russia’s Central Bank in May 2013.

A bill on changes to the existing legislation regulating the activity of online payment systems is currently being prepared by the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes.

Yevgeny Fyodorov, Russian deputy and one of the regulators of the restrictions, argues that the restrictions will serve as a preventive measure for the negative impact on the Russian online players that possible foreign sanctions might have, including blocking access to their digital wallets.

He pinpointed the need to make foreign payment systems more transparent to rule out the possibility of anonymous online payments being used to finance terrorism or other criminal activities. That is the aim of a ban on internet money transfers from anonymous accounts, which came into force in Russia in the middle of May 2014.

If passed, the bill will oblige online money transfer systems to pay security fees to the Central Bank similar to those introduced for Visa and MasterCard.

Under the recent amendments to the law “On the National Payment System”, Visa and MasterCard are to deposit 25% of their average daily transfer profit to the Central Bank every quarter of the year.

PayPal has protested that as long as it has a Central Bank license, it considers itself to be a Russian juridical person.