UK-based fintech startup Revolut partners with QIWI to offer services in Russia

Russian payment services provider QIWI is partnering with UK-based fintech company Revolut and announced the launch of Revolut services in Russia.

Under the partnership, QIWI granted Revolut access to its banking infrastructure via open APIs. QIWI’s bank infrastructure includes its banking licenses and technologies for customer identification, payment processing, and card issuance. Revolut services will run on the payment infrastructure of QIWI Bank and will be available to individuals in Russia.

According to the official release, the launch phase will involve basic product offering including a mobile application and a multi-currency VISA card that allows making payments, money and FX transfers in 130 currencies, as well as cash withdrawals from ATMs around the world. This product is free of charge for users.

FX and money transfers, as well as cash withdrawals, will be available at the interbank rate, without user commissions. Money transfers to 120 countries as well as wallet functionality in 26 currencies will be also available in the application.

“QIWI is one of the first Russian companies that has implemented a number of APIs that allow the use of QIWI Bank infrastructure as a platform for developing fintech projects. Now we are ready to go international with this platform, starting with the partnership with the leading European fintech-startup company Revolut,” Andrey Protopopov, Head of IT and Product of QIWI Group said. “Partnership with QIWI helps Revolut to be in full compliance with the Russian legislation and offers easy integration with the developed payment infrastructure, allowing the project team to focus on attracting new users in Russia and developing new functionality of the application."

Founded in 2015, Revolut is a mobile banking app that, among other things, allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Currently, it supports bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ethereum (ETH).