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- It takes a long time to pay: authorities are preparing new measures to combat droppers
It takes a long time to pay: authorities are preparing new measures to combat droppers
The authorities are developing new measures to counteract droppers (those who cash out fraudsters' funds). Payment agents will be prohibited from conducting transactions without full identification of the client — now the full name and passport will not be enough. We are talking about payments starting from 15 thousand rubles, which can be sent without opening an account and without personal presence. Such online services include, for example, Elecsnet and Unified Cash Register. The bill was supported by the government, as it is expected that the innovation will help combat money laundering. Whether this will help in the fight against fraudsters is in the Izvestia article.
How will payment requirements be tightened in Russia
Bank payment agents (BPA) will be prohibited from conducting simplified identification of individuals. The bill was supported by the Cabinet of Ministers, government sources told Izvestia. Izvestia also has the document.
Simplified customer identification is a shortened procedure for verifying a customer's identity. It is allowed when a person makes transactions with small amounts and does not open an account. In such cases, the bank or the payment agent may limit itself to minimal data — full name, passport number, INN or SNILS, without the client's personal presence.
As the press service of the Bank of Russia informed Izvestia, the regulator supports the draft law.
Bank payment agents are intermediaries that help credit institutions accept payments and connect customers to services, explained Vladimir Chernov, analyst at Freedom Finance Global. They operate under an agreement with a financial institution, accept transactions from the public and businesses, and then transfer funds and information to the settlement bank.
These can be payment terminal networks, payment acceptance points, or operators that connect retail outlets and online services to the bank, the expert explained. In addition, non-bank credit organizations can become agents. Among them, for example, United Cash Register, which operates through large terminal networks, and Elecsnet (a Russian network of self-service terminals with functions of transfers, payment for goods and services). Izvestia sent a request to these organizations.
After the law comes into force, BPAS will not be able to provide customers with a range of services. Namely, to make cash money transfers, issue bank cards, and open electronic wallets, said Vasily Kutyin, Ingo Bank's Director of Analytics. In addition, intermediaries will not accept cash payments from clients in favor of legal entities and sole proprietors to pay for goods, works and services over 15,000 rubles, he added.
The proposed measure may lengthen the payment process. If the operation starts at the terminal or in the partner application, the agent will no longer be able to perform the operation without full identification of the client, Vladimir Chernov drew attention. According to him, in this case, the client will first have to be transferred to the bank's contour and checked there.
This means that when making a payment through a payment agent, an additional stage will be added — logging in to the bank or the Unified Identification and Authentication System (USIA) and confirming your identity in this loop. You will be able to confirm your identity using the bank's data, and for some transactions, you will also be able to use biometrics.
However, banks will retain the ability to attract agents — they will continue to serve customers who have already been identified by a credit institution, for example, using card details, codes and passwords, said private investor Fyodor Sidorov from the School of Practical Investment. However, the key procedures — issuing cards, opening wallets — will return back to the area of responsibility of banks, added Oleg Abelev, head of the analytical department at the Rikom-Trust investment company.
How will limiting the actions of payment agents help in the fight against droppers
According to the Bank of Russia, the number of droppers increased by 71%, from 700,000 in December 2024 to 1.2 million by September 2025. Through payment agents, fraudsters organized settlements with crypto exchanges, illegal casinos and shadow businesses, and opened electronic wallets on front persons to cash out stolen funds, said Fyodor Sidorov, founder of the School of Practical Investment. Meanwhile, many people do not even know that they are engaged in dropping. At the same time, the volume of transactions through BPA is decreasing — from 600 billion rubles in 2023 to 183.6 billion in 2024, the expert explained.
Banning simplified identification of payment agents will reduce the number of "entry points" through which attackers can register other people's wallets and dropper cards, believes Vladimir Chernov from Freedom Finance Global. He added: this will not eliminate dropping completely, but it will significantly complicate it. It will also become easier to track shadow transfer chains, since the bank will conduct the verification, rather than a disparate network of terminals and partners.
— If the identification is performed by the bank itself, and not by an agent, then the customer's data is linked to the banking profile and to the sources of identity verification (passport, confirmed through Public Services, biometrics, electronic profile). For a dropper, this means that it will become more difficult to quickly create a fake profile at the terminal and hide their tracks," the expert explained.
In addition, the bank itself keeps a complete history of the client's identification data and transactions, which will make it easier to filter and block behavioral anomalies, such as numerous small transfers or multiple deposits from different points, Vladimir Chernov believes. This will make it difficult for dropper networks, which rely on the fragmentation of data among agents.
How will the ban on simplified identification affect the market
The changes are related to the fact that agents may incorrectly identify clients, said Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Bar Association.
"The proposed changes will reduce the involvement of credit institutions in conducting high—risk transactions related to the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, as well as reduce the risks of violating the rights and legitimate interests of citizens when making transactions through bank payment agents," the expert explained.
The initiative may increase the burden on banks, Vasily Kutyin is sure. They may have to expand their sales network and open additional service points, which may increase the cost of providing services.
At the same time, most banks are now striving to develop remote services, and their office network is sometimes unable to cover all territories, said Anna Turkina, head of Compliance and Internal Control at the Banking Development Department of the Association of Banks of Russia. In this case, simplified identification allows you to provide services to a much larger number of customers.
Izvestia sent inquiries to major banks about how the measure might affect their work. The credit organizations did not respond promptly.
According to Anna Turkina, finmarket participants believe that it is necessary to leave the customer identification function to payment agents. At the same time, an alternative solution should be found that would not provide for a complete ban on the use of BPA for simplified identification, but a proportional tightening of the requirements for such agents.
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