Black budget: banks criticized the law on labeling calls
Mandatory labeling of calls by companies can lead to higher prices for financial services. This follows from the conclusion of the National Council of the Financial Market on the draft government decree regulating the new requirements (Izvestia has it). The cost of warning about who is calling will fall on the shoulders of companies, and banks, brokers and insurance companies will eventually shift the fee to customers, according to the market. To prevent fraud from leading to higher prices for services, businesses can be provided with tax incentives, representatives of the financial sector suggest. The Ministry of Finance believes that labeling will not affect subscribers and tariffs in any way, however, they plan to additionally discuss this issue with companies and telecom operators.
How will call labeling work?
Banks have criticized the principle by which mandatory labeling of calls will work. Starting from September 1, telecom operators will be required to notify subscribers of who is calling them. This will let people know for sure that they are being contacted by a real company, and not by scammers who pose as its employees.
The law on call labeling has already been adopted, but the documents regulating the details of the process are currently being finalized. The National Council of the Financial Market (NSFM) has prepared a response to the relevant draft government decree (Izvestia has it). The association is confident that the adoption of the requirements in their current form can lead to higher prices for citizens, either for financial or cellular services.
Now the project provides that the transfer of information from a legal entity to an operator takes place on a contractual basis — in this case, labeling is paid for the initiator of the call, explained the head of the NSFR Andrey Emelin. In such a situation, the cost of implementing a new service will be shifted to the business, which is often legally required to interact with customers. There are especially many such requirements for financial companies — banks, brokers, insurers, microfinance organizations.
— In general, this is a factor in the acceleration of prices for financial services, — says Andrey Emelin.
In any case, innovation will require developing the infrastructure of the communications market, which will require investments, Tele2's press service stressed. Izvestia has sent requests to other mobile operators.
The Ministry of Finance is confident that labeling will not affect individual subscribers and tariffs for them. Nevertheless, they clarified to Izvestia that the issue of payment for tagging on calls will be further discussed with companies and telecom operators. The regulatory framework in this regard may change, as the estimate of operators' costs for mandatory labeling of calls has yet to be finalized. Paying for such services from companies could help operators offset some of the costs, the agency believes.
However, the financial market believes that it is incorrect to transfer fees to companies, the NSFR explained. At the same time, they recognize that if this principle is abandoned, the cost of launching the initiative will lead to an increase in communication tariffs. As a result, the burden of financing anti-fraud measures may still fall on citizens, the association concluded.
To solve the problem, the NSFR proposes to introduce tax deductions or other forms of compensation for the cost of introducing mandatory labeling of calls. This will help prevent the financial burden from being shifted to businesses and consumers. Izvestia has sent a request to the Ministry of Finance for its readiness to allocate funds to support the implementation of a package of measures to combat fraud.
How will the labeling of calls affect the rates
Telephone communication with the client is an important aspect of the work of any financial organization, noted in the association of microfinance organizations SRO "MiR". There are thousands of outgoing calls every day, and millions every month.
Vladimir Chernov, an analyst at Freedom Finance Global, suggested that the cost of introducing call labeling may indeed be borne by the end user. Banks will begin to include them in the cost of customer service, increasing fees for transfers, issuing cards or other financial services.
However, in any case, credit institutions have a sufficient margin of safety to cope with additional expenses — last year they made a record profit of 3.8 trillion rubles. Not all branches of domestic business can boast of such results.
If the government decree is adopted in its original form, many companies will face expenses that they are not ready for. This is especially sensitive in the context of a slowing economy and a still high key interest rate.
While maintaining current requirements, companies may consider the possibility of completely eliminating the mass use of calls when communicating with customers, Vladimir Chernov noted.
According to him, the operators' tariffs may turn out to be high enough for businesses to switch to more active use of chats and push notifications. And this may be inconvenient, for example, for older clients. That is why, experts believe, it is necessary to think in advance about a mechanism to compensate the market for potential costs.
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