InfoWatch Group, the main shareholder of which is Natalia Kaspersky, acquired 80% of Handysvyoshens LLC, the manager of the HandyBank payment system, follows from the SPARK data. Sergey Chernomorov, chairman of the board and shareholder of the bank "New Symbol", who in November 2017 lost the license of the Central Bank, acted as the seller of the share. Natalia Kaspersky confirmed RBC fact of the transaction, but did not disclose its amount. Contact with Sergei Chernomorov failed.
What is HandyBank?
HandyBank is an interbank system for managing accounts and making payments. Customers of banks with which HandyBank partnership agreements may establish eponymous mobile application, bind to it a map of your bank or several banks and pay for utilities services, mobile communications, shopping in online stores, make money transfers. HandyBank system partners are more than 50 banks, among them Zlatkombank, "Power" bank Neklis Bank and others. According to SPARC, for 2016 revenue "Hendisolyushens" Ltd decreased by 59%, to 5.4 million rubles., While net the loss amounted to 453 thousand rubles. The settlement center of the payment system up to the revocation of the license was the bank "New Symbol". Now, according to Natalia Kasperskaya, the main settlement center is the bank "Otkrytie".
Founder and CEO of the payment system Pay-Me Vladimir Kanin believes that the value of the entire company HandyBank is about $ 5 million, which means that the purchase of 80% of the company could do Kasperskaya approximately $ 4 million. "Installs mobile applications have HandyBank quite a bit, about a 5- 10 thousand on Google Play and probably the same in the App Store. However, the company used to develop mobile applications for banks as an outsourcer, they have good technologies. I think that Kaspersky could buy the company because of their technology, workings and team to quickly enter the banking business, do not develop technology from scratch, "- says Kanin.
Interviewed by RBC experts give a low estimate of the value of HandyBank. "At the end of 2017, after the license was revoked, the Bank" New Symbol "in HandyBank system failed - it was not available to users. This could significantly reduce the amount of the transaction, "- says an analyst of one of the major banks.
Banking rate
For Natalia Kaspersky HandyBank is not the first acquisition related to the banking industry. In September 2017, it became the owner of 64% of Naklis Bank through its off-shore Organat Financial limited, follows from the Central Bank. It is a small Moscow bank that occupies the 296th place in terms of assets in the rating of Interfax-CEA.
"One of the directions for the development of Naklis Bank is the opportunity to create on its basis a financial platform that would provide services to other banks, for example in the field of information security or payments," RBC reported. HandyBank is not the only payment system that InfoWatch targeted. The company is considering buying at least one payment system, but this deal is not yet closed, Kaspersky said.
In order to compete with existing fintech platforms and payment systems, InfoWatch should offer a fundamentally new solution for consumers of financial services and financial organizations, says Yuri Gribanov, CEO of Frank Research Group. "And the solution should not just be new and reliable, but also user-friendly. While consumers of financial services are rather careless about security issues, and if authorization or confirmation of transactions requires a complex algorithm of actions, such a system will not be in demand, "he says.
Sovereign Bitcoin
It is possible that with the help of the acquired payment system InfoWatch, crypto-currency may enter the market, Finam analyst Leonid Delitsyn thinks. At the end of 2017, InfoWatch Asset Management (the InfoWatch group structure) filed several applications for registration of trademarks to Rospatent, including CasperCoin, CryptoCasper, RussianBit, and others. And during the opening of the InfoWatch training center in the St. Petersburg National Research university of information technologies, mechanics and optics in January, Kaspersky said that bitcoins are the development of US special services, and therefore Russia needs to develop its own crypto-currencies.
On the question of RBC about whether it is planned to develop services related to crypto-currencies on the basis of HandyBank and Naklis Bank, Natalia Kaspersky said that "it is planned to develop the directions of services related to fintekh."
Natalia Kaspersky about bitcoin
"Bitcoin is a project of the US special services that was created to quickly finance US, British and Canadian intelligence activities around the world." RIA Novosti, January 2018
"I'm in favor of having a national crypto currency, because Bitcoin is a tool that, firstly, was not invented by us, and secondly, 75% of the bitcoins are in private hands." "Russia 24", October 2017
"Transparency of transactions in bitcoin is zero, it is impossible to establish reliably who pays to whom. This goes against the trend of transparency of transactions around the world. " "Komsomolskaya Pravda", January 2018
According to Arseniy Sheltsin, executive director of the Russian Association of Crypto-Currency and Locked-Up (ARKIB), Kaspersky has a good chance of making its products in the field of crypto-currency, and they are more likely to differ from analogues in Russia. "It's common for our Internet figures to express concerns about new technologies, and there may be" holes "for secret services in Bitcoin, but it's rather difficult and meaningless to use them. Kaspersky can do their projects, not even on the blockroom. They will probably use Russian cryptography, and then they will pass certification of regulatory bodies, "argues Shcheltsin.
Kaspersky can face serious competition in this field, believes Leonid Delitsyn. "There are already a few big players in the face of Sberbank, QIWI and all sorts of associations. At the same time, the issue of regulation of the crypto-currency industry remains open, "the expert said.
What is HandyBank?
HandyBank is an interbank system for managing accounts and making payments. Customers of banks with which HandyBank partnership agreements may establish eponymous mobile application, bind to it a map of your bank or several banks and pay for utilities services, mobile communications, shopping in online stores, make money transfers. HandyBank system partners are more than 50 banks, among them Zlatkombank, "Power" bank Neklis Bank and others. According to SPARC, for 2016 revenue "Hendisolyushens" Ltd decreased by 59%, to 5.4 million rubles., While net the loss amounted to 453 thousand rubles. The settlement center of the payment system up to the revocation of the license was the bank "New Symbol". Now, according to Natalia Kasperskaya, the main settlement center is the bank "Otkrytie".
Founder and CEO of the payment system Pay-Me Vladimir Kanin believes that the value of the entire company HandyBank is about $ 5 million, which means that the purchase of 80% of the company could do Kasperskaya approximately $ 4 million. "Installs mobile applications have HandyBank quite a bit, about a 5- 10 thousand on Google Play and probably the same in the App Store. However, the company used to develop mobile applications for banks as an outsourcer, they have good technologies. I think that Kaspersky could buy the company because of their technology, workings and team to quickly enter the banking business, do not develop technology from scratch, "- says Kanin.
Interviewed by RBC experts give a low estimate of the value of HandyBank. "At the end of 2017, after the license was revoked, the Bank" New Symbol "in HandyBank system failed - it was not available to users. This could significantly reduce the amount of the transaction, "- says an analyst of one of the major banks.
Banking rate
For Natalia Kaspersky HandyBank is not the first acquisition related to the banking industry. In September 2017, it became the owner of 64% of Naklis Bank through its off-shore Organat Financial limited, follows from the Central Bank. It is a small Moscow bank that occupies the 296th place in terms of assets in the rating of Interfax-CEA.
"One of the directions for the development of Naklis Bank is the opportunity to create on its basis a financial platform that would provide services to other banks, for example in the field of information security or payments," RBC reported. HandyBank is not the only payment system that InfoWatch targeted. The company is considering buying at least one payment system, but this deal is not yet closed, Kaspersky said.
In order to compete with existing fintech platforms and payment systems, InfoWatch should offer a fundamentally new solution for consumers of financial services and financial organizations, says Yuri Gribanov, CEO of Frank Research Group. "And the solution should not just be new and reliable, but also user-friendly. While consumers of financial services are rather careless about security issues, and if authorization or confirmation of transactions requires a complex algorithm of actions, such a system will not be in demand, "he says.
Sovereign Bitcoin
It is possible that with the help of the acquired payment system InfoWatch, crypto-currency may enter the market, Finam analyst Leonid Delitsyn thinks. At the end of 2017, InfoWatch Asset Management (the InfoWatch group structure) filed several applications for registration of trademarks to Rospatent, including CasperCoin, CryptoCasper, RussianBit, and others. And during the opening of the InfoWatch training center in the St. Petersburg National Research university of information technologies, mechanics and optics in January, Kaspersky said that bitcoins are the development of US special services, and therefore Russia needs to develop its own crypto-currencies.
On the question of RBC about whether it is planned to develop services related to crypto-currencies on the basis of HandyBank and Naklis Bank, Natalia Kaspersky said that "it is planned to develop the directions of services related to fintekh."
Natalia Kaspersky about bitcoin
"Bitcoin is a project of the US special services that was created to quickly finance US, British and Canadian intelligence activities around the world." RIA Novosti, January 2018
"I'm in favor of having a national crypto currency, because Bitcoin is a tool that, firstly, was not invented by us, and secondly, 75% of the bitcoins are in private hands." "Russia 24", October 2017
"Transparency of transactions in bitcoin is zero, it is impossible to establish reliably who pays to whom. This goes against the trend of transparency of transactions around the world. " "Komsomolskaya Pravda", January 2018
According to Arseniy Sheltsin, executive director of the Russian Association of Crypto-Currency and Locked-Up (ARKIB), Kaspersky has a good chance of making its products in the field of crypto-currency, and they are more likely to differ from analogues in Russia. "It's common for our Internet figures to express concerns about new technologies, and there may be" holes "for secret services in Bitcoin, but it's rather difficult and meaningless to use them. Kaspersky can do their projects, not even on the blockroom. They will probably use Russian cryptography, and then they will pass certification of regulatory bodies, "argues Shcheltsin.
Kaspersky can face serious competition in this field, believes Leonid Delitsyn. "There are already a few big players in the face of Sberbank, QIWI and all sorts of associations. At the same time, the issue of regulation of the crypto-currency industry remains open, "the expert said.
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