From July to December 2020, the Central Bank of Russia, acting in its supervisory capacity, performed a routine scheduled audit of Qiwi Bank for the period of July 2018 to September 2020 and, in the course of this audit, has identified certain violations and deficiencies relating primarily to reporting and record-keeping requirements, Qiwi disclosed last night in a regulatory filing. “We believe that the deficiencies that have been identified by the audit can arise as part of an ordinary course for most banking institutions of Qiwi Bank’s scale,” the company added. The monetary fine imposed on Qiwi Bank as a result of these findings was RUB 11M, or approximately $150,000. In addition, as part of its instruction letter setting forth the findings of the audit, the CBR introduced certain restrictions with respect to Qiwi Bank’s operations, including, effective from December 7, the suspension or limitation of most types of payments to foreign merchants and money transfers to pre-paid cards from corporate accounts. “We believe that the restrictions imposed on us are primarily driven by an evaluation of the overall approach of the CBR to the interpretation of the applicable e-payments regulation and general trends towards increased scrutiny in the areas of cyberspace and cross-border payments that we have been observing recently rather than specific deficiencies identified,” the company said. If the CBR restrictions were to be in effect and the corresponding operations were to be discounted for the entire nine-month period ending on September 30, 2020, approximately 33% to 40% of the company’s Payment Services segment net revenue for such period would have been negatively affected. Shares of Qiwi are down 20%, or $2.73, to $10.86 in afternoon trading.