The Government Commission on Legislative Activities approved Rosfinmonitoring amendments, which limit one-time money transfers without opening a bank account to the amount of 100 thousand rubles. The limit will be applied to customers who pass simplified authentication. he is writing RBC, referring to the bill.
The initiative includes amendments to the “prevention of money laundering” law and the law “On the National Payment System”. The bill was agreed with the Bank of Russia, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Digital Development, Roskomnadzor and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Finance believes that the changes will help reduce capital outflow from the country. A representative from Rosfinmonitoring said the changes were aimed at “countering illegal financial transactions, bank fraud, terrorist financing and extremism.”
The ministry’s representative also noted that the initiative means introducing a special limit on one-time transactions.
“If a person needs to make a one-time payment for an amount of more than 100 thousand rubles, full identification will be required. In this case, the ESP (electronic payment instrument – socialbites.ca note) will be personalized with a one-time transaction limit of 600 thousand rubles,” Rosfinmonitoring reported.
What is the simplified definition?
According to current legislation, you can now transfer up to 15 thousand rubles without any identification. All transfers above this amount require identification information.
Simplified identification assumes that the customer provides the bank with his/her first name, surname, patronymic and details of his/her identity document. You can complete it in person or remotely using electronic copies of the document.
In this way, only individual customers can be identified. At the same time, if a bank employee suspects that the operation is carried out for the purpose of laundering criminal proceeds or is too complex, he may ask the customer for full identification. This can only be completed in the personal presence of the client, said Yuri Fedyukin, managing partner of the law firm Enterprise Legal Solutions. The person making the transfer will then be asked to provide additional information about the transaction (for example, talk about its purpose). Foreign customers may be asked to provide their transit card information and confirm that their stay in Russia is legal.
Is there a limit anymore?
Current legislation already imposes a limit on money transfers without opening an account with a simplified authentication method. Individuals can transfer up to 200 thousand rubles per month in this way. At the same time, as customers of money transfer systems told RBC, such organizations allow transfers of large amounts without full identification.
Rosfinmonitoring announced that the proposed new changes do not affect the monthly limit. Its volume will remain the same. The Ministry believes that the absence of a limit on a one-time transaction is not consistent with international standards in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
In the first edition of the bill, Rosfinmonitoring suggested introducing a limit of 60 thousand rubles. This proposal was criticized by market participants. They also found the 100 thousand limit problematic, Wrote “TO”.
Experts called the optimal limit for transactions with a simplified definition 600 thousand rubles. According to Viktor Dostov, president of the Association of Electronic Money and Money Transfer Market Participants, such a restriction will affect the minimum number of customers and will not lead to a significant increase in costs.
Who will be affected by the changes?
Only individual customers can benefit from the simplified identity verification process required for transfers without opening an account. At the same time, as experts note, the Rosfinmonitoring initiative will have little impact on remittances within the country.
The changes will primarily affect those using cross-border transfer systems. For example, Russians who currently live abroad but have any income or liabilities in Russia. The initiative will also affect migrant workers and ordinary citizens who make such transfers.
“On the other hand, this does not prevent them from dividing the operations and transferring 100 thousand rubles. several times or at temporary intervals,” says Yuri Fedyukin.
At the same time, on the website of the Golden Crown money transfer system it is stated that only 600 thousand rubles can be transferred per month. You can make three transfers per day and up to 30 transfers per month. As a Russian living in Georgia told socialbites.ca, he will not be able to make more than 15 transfers per month. So, according to the new rules, you can withdraw no more than 1.5 million rubles from a Russian card. monthly.
Rosfinmonitoring hopes that the project will be adopted by the spring session of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. In this case, the law will come into force one year after its adoption – in the spring of 2025.