Central Bank of Russia decided to amend the criteria for blocking accounts

The regulator plans to change the criteria by which it determined dubious transactions, whereby bank could block access to the accounts of some customers, Forbes reports. According to the representative of the Central Bank, the list of criteria has remained unchanged since 2012. Over the past year, the Central Bank together with Rosfinmonitoring studied new technologies in order to remove obsolete criteria from the list, as well as replenish them with new ones.

     The authority plans to change the approach to identifying dubious banking transactions. According to it, the transfer, even with high fees, should not be perceived as a dangerous transaction. The Central Bank also plans to abandon the paragraph on non-standard and complex calculations. Thus, transactions that differ from the usual client’s operations will not be classified as dangerous. But if it differs from the generally accepted practice on the market, this will be a trigger for banking organizations to strengthen control over the client’s activities.

     The new criterion proposed by the regulator is related to the refusal of a one-time operation or the request from the client to close the account and issue cash after emerged suspicions from the credit organization side. The Central Bank also plans to allow banks to refuse to conduct transactions if a credit institution has distrust that it may be carried out with the aim of money laundering.

     The authority also proposed to replenish the list with frequent cash withdrawal operations by individuals, if the funds come from legal entities or private entrepreneurs. Dangerous transactions should also include remote operations that are performed from the same address or group of addresses in relation to different accounts of organizations registered in other countries or not owned by customers. The Central Bank also allows the possibility of blocking accounts created for the purpose of acquiring or selling digital assets.

     According to Yulia Galueva, the deputy general director of the legal organization Amuleks, the new list is more relevant than the previous one and compiled in greater detail. Vladimir Efremov, a partner of Arbitrage.ru company, also noted that the new list has been made more thoroughly. He drew attention to the fact that many criteria were already applied by banks, but were not documented. Thanks to innovations, cooperation between companies and banks will be more transparent and understandable for customers.