Major Changes in Payment Systems: ePayments Freezes Accounts, Skrill Updates Policies

ePayments, a major European payment system, has temporarily frozen all user accounts as of February 11, 2020. This action was taken due to non-compliance with European anti-money laundering regulations, specifically the AMLD5 directive which came into effect on January 10, 2020. This directive imposes stricter rules on the anonymous use and transfer of cryptocurrencies.

ePayments was known for its fast and convenient money transfers, including cryptocurrency exchanges. The system's operations were halted, and all funds on user accounts were frozen. The duration of this freeze is unknown, but it is expected that ePayments will return to the market after addressing the regulatory issues.

In Russia, new amendments to the Federal Law 'On the National Payment System' will come into effect in the summer of 2020. These amendments will ban anonymous deposits to payment systems, affecting services like Яндекс.Деньги, Qiwi, and WebMoney. Additionally, Skrill has stopped transferring money to Russian currency accounts, effective from October 2019. Skrill users can now hold multiple currencies in a single account without creating a new one.