RBK Money, the leading online payments provider in Russia, announced today that it has been granted the status of an Authorized Payment Institution by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.
This enables RBK Money to offer its payment services across all the EU member states under the Payment Services Directive (PSD).
This also means that RBK Money will be regulated similar to other European Payment Institutions in relation to their capital adequacy, anti-money laundering procedures and data protection, providing additional assurance to its clients and partners.
RBK Money became the first payment services company from Russia to obtain such credibility on the major international market. The company also operates its own e-money license in Russia, which enables RBK Money to offer international businesses a quick and easy access to the dynamic Russian market. Cross-border e-commerce sales in Russia are estimated to grow up to 100% in 2013 compared to the previous year.
Andrew Morozov, CEO RBK Money says, "This is a major milestone in our international expansion and we are very proud to become a trusted and fully authorised payment institution in Europe. As a payments company, we put the trust of our customers as the highest priority and nothing may support this trust more than full compliancy with the tough FCA rules and requirements. As an Authorised Payment Institution, we are able to offer this additional level of security to our clients. RBK Money can now start growing its business throughout Europe and make a significant impact on the industry through the introduction of our innovative payment services, which are already very successful on other markets around the world."
RBK Money is a payments platform for online businesses, which successfully mixes the innovative card payment interfaces with alternative payment methods for easy access to the emerging markets, all with a 100% fraud-protection guarantee. Users can make payments at online stores with the help of RBK Money e-wallet, pay for communication services, make money transfers, as well as withdraw funds to a bank account. With approximately 5m users and 35 thousand merchants, RBK Money's main customers are e-commerce business, online games and online services. RBK Money is headquartered in London, in the UK.