In Russia, they want to change the rules by which banks react to the coincidence of client data with information from Rosfinmonitoring lists. If the client's full name and other identification data partially match the data of a person against whom measures to freeze funds should be applied, operations may be suspended for five business days.
Currently, the approach is softer. A partial match in itself does not allow considering the client to be the same person from the list and automatically freezing their funds. The bank must consider such an operation as unusual and, if necessary, report it to Rosfinmonitoring. The new project actually proposes to take the next step and turn the match into a separate basis for temporary suspension of operations.
The criteria for a match must be separately established by Rosfinmonitoring. It is on them that it will depend how often the system will trigger for people with the same surname and similar personal data. If no decision on further application of restrictions is received within five business days, operations on the account must be resumed.
The initiative should close a way to circumvent restrictions through different spellings of names and other data. But at the same time, the risk of false positives increases — especially if the criteria turn out to be too broad.
For now, this is just a project, not an active rule. Its public discussion ends on September 24, and the entry into force of the amendments is proposed to be postponed for 270 days after the official publication of the law.