Russian banks are now prohibited from denying services to customers and blocking their accounts without giving any reason. The corresponding law came into force on January 30, RIA Novosti reports.
Now credit organizations will not be able to block transfers of citizens and organizations, even if they do not have documents confirming the legality of the money. The only exceptions were reasonable suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing. The decision to cancel the operation can only be made by the head of the organization and persons authorized by him.
On January 25, it was reported that the Central Bank and the Ministry of Justice of Russia returned to discussing the possibilities of blocking one of the largest channels for withdrawing money abroad. They are going to impose a ban on the transfer of funds under orders of execution anywhere outside the Russian jurisdiction. They started talking about the problem itself after the disclosure of the “Moldovan scheme” in 2017. Fraudsters have taken advantage of the fact that Russian banks are obliged to transfer funds of the debtor company to a foreign counterparty by a court decision, even if they suspect that it is money laundering. Later, for such a conclusion, they began to use the executive inscriptions of notaries and the decisions of the labor dispute commission.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance prepared a bill giving the Federal Customs Service (FCS) new powers to combat the withdrawal of funds abroad.