The Central Bank decided to strengthen control over migrants’ bank accounts

The project aims to combat droppers, people who issue cards for illegal financial transactions, in particular, to withdraw money and carry out transactions for shadow businesses (online casinos, pirate sites, cryptocurrency exchangers, etc.).

According to Chablis, around a quarter of droppers are non-residents and often false documents, purchased or stolen from immigrants, were used to issue the card; A migrant’s passport can be purchased on the black market for only 10 thousand rubles. “You can check the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation using the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but there are no such possibilities for checking the passport of a non-resident,” he noted.

The Rosfinmonitoring press service confirmed to the publication that there are problems in confirming the reliability of information on migrants’ identity documents, adding that the reason is the lack of special information systems containing the relevant information.

Rosfinmonitoring proposed two ways to solve the problem:

• The state could introduce a unique document for the identification of a foreign citizen on the territory of Russia. Difficulties include lengthy approvals and practical implementation of the project, as well as high costs.
• Provide financial institutions with access to information on migrants’ identity documents from immigration authorities.

In accordance with the regulations of the Central Bank, banks can serve non-residents upon personal presentation of the client and presentation of a passport or entry visa, however, the exact package of documents is established by each bank independently. For example, instead of an entry visa, a bank may request a migration card if a person comes from a country that has an established visa-free regime with Russia. In this case, any additional information about the identity of the foreigner is entered from the client’s own words.

The experts interviewed by the publication confirmed the relevance of the problem of the connection between immigrants and droppership. An RBC source at one of the large banks pointed out the problem of the lack of document reconciliation databases and clear tools for verifying the legality of a person’s presence on Russian territory.

According to Andrey Emelin, president of the National Council of the Financial Market, difficulties arise from the transliteration of different languages ​​​​in the documents and their validity periods. He also proposed giving banks access to the Interior Ministry’s migration database.