It is no longer possible to top up your Steam wallet via Qiwi. Alas.
Today, February 21, it became known that the Bank of Russia has revoked the license to carry out banking operations from Qiwi Bank. Almost immediately after this, the Qiwi payment service prohibited the withdrawal of funds and replenishment of wallets. There were also problems with the operation of the mobile application due to high load (the author of this material checked this personally).
It is also impossible to withdraw funds from a Qiwi wallet – in this case, a message appears that the payment cannot be made. The Central Bank, regarding the revocation of the license from Kiva Bank, said the following: “The organization’s activities were characterized by involvement in high-risk transactions aimed at ensuring settlements between individuals and shadow businesses, including transfers of funds in favor of crypto exchangers, illegal online casinos, bookmakers offices, etc., as well as searching for new ways to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the regulator.”
The Central Bank pointed out “numerous cases of banks opening Qiwi wallets using the personal data of individuals without their knowledge and conducting transactions on them, which created significant risks for citizens.” According to the Central Bank, the bank “did not take effective measures to reduce risks in its activities, despite the active supervisory work of the Bank of Russia, and continued to conduct high-risk transactions.”
The regulator's press release also states that information about transactions carried out by the bank that have signs of criminal offenses has already been transferred to law enforcement agencies. As for the funds remaining in Qiwi wallets. to which users do not yet have access, the Bank of Russia reminded that deposit insurance in Russia does not cover funds in electronic wallets, noting that “clients who had money in bank accounts need to apply for payments to the DIA.”
I would also like to sympathize with the players who topped up their Steam wallets using the Qiwi service. Until today, this was almost the only working way to make purchases in the Valve store for residents of the Russian Federation and Belarus. We dare to suggest that numerous intermediaries who offered services for replenishing a Steam wallet, but took an insanely large commission, used Qiwi, simply “gluing” their 10-20% to the 9% commission of the service.