Russians complain about months-long blocking of funds on their cards

Russians face prolonged blocking of funds on bank cards, as follows from the reviews on the People's Rating platform of the Banks portal.<url>, analyzed by Izvestia. Some clients report that funds have been frozen for up to six months, in some cases the money has been unavailable for one and a half to three months. Clients of MTS Money, VTB and Gazprombank have faced such situations.

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Banks cite compliance with the requirements of 115-FZ, the law on countering money laundering and terrorist financing, as the reason for such blockages. Restrictions are imposed upon suspicion of "gray" schemes, transfer of funds by front persons ("droppers") and other suspicious transactions. As explained in the press service of the Central Bank, it is most often not about a complete arrest, but about the restriction of remote service, in which operations are temporarily impossible.

The number of complaints increased after May 15, when new rules came into force limiting transfers of more than 100,000 rubles per month for users who entered the "dropper database," said Evgenia Lazareva, project manager of the ONF For Borrowers' Rights. Experts note that unblocking can take weeks due to multi-level checks and the need to confirm the legality of the origin of funds.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Transferred by the nose: banks began to deprive Russians of access to their money for months