The Russian central bank is expected to develop a new platform that would help it to overcome illegal OTC crypto services and suspicious financial activities.
Central bank of Russia are reportedly planning to create a new platform aimed at making it harder for shadow businesses to misuse banking services for illegal activities, including crypto-to- fiat over the counter platforms that bypass KYC procedures.
The Bank of Russia is collaborating with the country's financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring, banks, and local experts to create a system that would help identify and block customers involved in financial transactions illegal, Russian news center RBC reportssays Bogdan Shablya, head of the financial monitoring and currency control service at the Bank of Russia.
The platform will reportedly allow the central bank to share information about suspicious activity with financial lenders, helping them prevent illegal financial transactions. The focus is on individuals – also known as “droppers” – who offer their bank cards for money laundering or illegal activities, including transactions for drugs, casinos on- online, crypto exchanges / OTC services, or pirate websites.
Centralized database
Shablya explained that the central bank has already set up online monitoring systems with certain banks to monitor individual transactions. However, at the moment, it can only share information about “droppers” with the banks where these clients have accounts. Because bad actors often open accounts in several banks, there is a need to centralize data and “share information with all credit institutions,” Shablya said.
Currently, banks do not have the authority to deny an account to a person based solely on information that suggests they may be involved in drop activity. What a bank can do now is open an account and block remote banking services for that account. However, these decisions are often made after suspicious transactions have already occurred, Shablya explained.
The timeline for the launch of the platform is unclear, as Shablya said the issue is “still under development” and stressed that the central bank aims to find an “adequate solution” to will deal with the problem without creating social tension or affecting honest citizens.
