OREANDA-NEWS. March 21, 2011. The Electronic Money Association, which unites RussiaЎЇs leading e-money players such as i-Free, WebMoney, Yandex.Dengi, QIWI and the national industry associations NAUMIR (the National Association of Microfinance Market Participants) and NAUET (National Association of E-commerce Market Participants), hosted a news conference in Moscow to showcase key figures for the Russian e-money market, analytical estimates and an overview of the most significant industry highlights.

RussiaЎЇs e-money market is steadily on the rise. Users put (USD 2,46 billion) RUR70 billion in their e-purses in 2010, compared to (USD 1,4 billion) RUR40 billion in 2009, and the number of active e-money users rose 50% to 30 million last year.

In an important legislative milestone, the National Duma sta6rtd debates on the draft National Payment System law last year, and the Federal Act On Microfinance Services and Microfinance Organizations was signed into law, which put the Finance Ministry in control of some previously unregulated credit markets.

The government markedly stepped up support for electronic payment systems, giving its backing to the Universal Electronic Card project. A part of the E-CardЎЇs functionality will be actualized through the medium of electronic payments. And it will be easier to pay fees to various government agencies.

Russia has recently witnessed a real breakthrough in NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. The banks and mobile providers now offer public transit payment options with NFC cards or mobile phones. As a premier developer of NFC solutions in Russia, i-Free has begun the piloting of School Online, a project entirely based on NFC.

Along with NFC, mobile commerce is also going places. The subscribers of RussiaЎЇs top three mobile providers, MTS, MegaFon and Beeline, now have the option to make micropayments with their mobile phones.

Russian banks seem much more willing to do business with e-money operators. Alfa-Bank, Sberbank and a few other major banks have linked up with WebM§аney, QIWI or Yandex.Dengi, so now their customers can use credit cards to put money in their e-purses or have their e-money providers integrated into their online banking software and ATM menus. Online money cards, offered through e-money systems, are also a growing business in Russia.

Another important trend is that the two biggest social networks in Russia, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, have launched e-money options tied to their usersЎЇ profiles.

As RussiaЎЇs e-market continues to thrive, payment systems now look more attractive as business assets. Some of the industry highlights in 2010 were the purchase of a stake in QIWI Ltd. by JapanЎЇs Mitsui&Co and the IPO of Mail.ru Group, which is a shareholder in the e-money systems QIWI and Dengi.Mail.ru.

Ў°Our association has contributed meaningfully to regulation, acting as a consolidated lobbyist for the marketplace vis-Ё¤-vis lawmakers and regulators,Ў± said Viktor Dostov, who chairs the Electronic Money Association. Ў°We work very closely with FATF and the Russian Financial Monitoring Agency to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Our regular market analyses and active media relations were crucial for the shaping of a favorable sentiment about the industry and for its greater transparency.Ў±

Here you can find presentation Ў°E-Money 2010: Results, Events and TrendsЎ± prepared by Victor Dostov, the Chairman of the E-Money Association.