Central Bank to Monitor Money Transfers Between Individuals
The Central Bank of Russia has sent a new reporting form to Russian banks regarding money transfers between individuals. According to sources cited by RBC, the regulator will now request information on all peer-to-peer (p2p) transactions, including personal data of both senders and recipients. A representative from the payment company QIWI confirmed receipt of the new form.
Oleg Mashtalyar, Deputy Chairman of Sovcombank, explained that the Central Bank will begin risk-based monitoring of transfers between individuals starting January of next year. QIWI also reported that the Central Bank notified them of plans to periodically request data on p2p transfers beginning in 2022.
What Transactions Will Be Monitored?
According to the Central Bank’s clarifications on the new reporting form, it will include all transfers such as:
- Card-to-card transfers
- Account-to-account transfers
- Transfers between electronic wallets
- Card-to-wallet and wallet-to-card transfers
- Transfers from a mobile operator’s account to a wallet or card and vice versa
- Transfers via the Fast Payment System
- Cross-border transfers
- Transfers without opening an account, including through payment terminals of payment agents
- Transfers between an individual’s own accounts within the same bank
- Transfers through money transfer systems such as Western Union, CONTACT, and others
The new reporting form will not include transfers to deposit accounts, loan repayment accounts, brokerage or investment accounts, bank service fees, or transfers to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.
What Data Will Be Collected?
Banks will be required to provide the Central Bank with the following information:
- Sender’s and recipient’s card numbers
- Bank details
- Unique client ID
- Payment purpose
- Amount, date, and time of transfer
- Country codes of sender and recipient
- And other related data
Reporting must be provided by issuing banks, acquiring banks, banks offering online transfer services between individuals, as well as stores and legal entities if they provide online money transfer services.
Purpose of the New Reporting Requirements
The main goal of introducing these new reporting forms is to optimize data submission by banks and to obtain up-to-date information on payment services, a Central Bank representative told RBC. The data will be used to analyze the market both nationwide and regionally, and to generate statistical indicators.
Later, the Central Bank’s press service stated that they do not plan to introduce a new reporting form, but will collect anonymized data if there is a risk of banks being used for illegal operations by online casinos and bookmakers.