Since January 27, calls from Sberbank, VTB, and Alfa-Bank clients have ceased to be accompanied by mandatory identification, as required by the law on countering telephone fraud. The reason was the lack of concluded agreements between banks and telecom operators for the provision of paid labeling services. The information is reported by RBC.
Since September 1, 2025, legislation has been in effect in Russia requiring operators to inform subscribers about calling organizations. Incoming calls from companies should be displayed with the name and category of the call, such as "bank" or "advertising." The goal of the initiative is to protect citizens from fraudsters who masquerade as legitimate businesses. However, negotiations on the cost of the service have dragged on: banks estimate the cost of labeling at 11 billion rubles per year, while operators emphasize the effectiveness of the measure, which reduces spam calls by 25%.
Representatives of the "big four" operators reported that calls from organizations that have not concluded an agreement are now marked as "unlabeled." For the service to work correctly, banks need to provide information about numbers and communication categories. In the absence of this data, the call is defined as "unlabeled," T2 explained.
Similar statements were made by representatives of MTS, MegaFon, and VimpelCom. According to them, the law is the same for everyone and does not provide for exceptions, and the "unlabeled" mark allows the subscriber to consciously choose whether to answer the call or not.
Banks note significant costs for implementing labeling. "Labels" for calls cost financial organizations approximately 11 billion rubles per year, while mass calls cost them 20 kopecks per call. Representatives of VTB and Alfa-Bank reported that they continue to contact clients using official numbers, complying with legal requirements, but not all organizations are ready for full integration of the labeling service.
