A new anti-fraud platform for joint work between telecom operators and banks is being discussed in Russia

The Central Bank, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Digital Development, Roskomnadzor and market participants are discussing the creation of another anti-fraud platform – for joint work of banks and telecom operators. Currently there is no legislative regulation of information exchange between them. Banks support the creation of the platform. Operators are less enthusiastic and are only cautious about talking about “information interaction” for fear of losing the income they now receive from banks for providing data. A number of Kommersant’s interlocutors believe that the formulation of the problem itself is outdated and the information of the Central Bank and banks needs to be integrated with Roskomnadzor systems.

A new anti-fraud platform for joint work between telecom operators and banks is being discussed in Russia, the Central Bank told Kommersant. The idea is being considered by large banks, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Digital Development, Roskomnadzor and telecom operators. The Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed to Kommersant that they are participating in a working group to create a national antifraud platform. It will be a “centralized system for countering transactions without the client’s consent based on data from financial institutions and telecom operators.” The Central Bank clarified to Kommersant that, based on the results of the working group’s activities, “it was decided to develop the exchange of information between credit institutions and operators.” The Ministry of Digital Development confirmed that they are participating in the discussion of the project. Roskomnadzor did not answer Kommersant.

“It is advisable to build information exchange through existing channels of interaction, based on the FinCERT infrastructure (a division of the Central Bank, on the basis of which a system of information exchange between banks, law enforcement agencies, telecom operators and companies that work in the field of information security of the Bank of Russia has been created.— “Kommersant”),” the Central Bank believes. Specific formats of interaction are now being worked out, it was clarified there.

MTS confirmed that they are participating in the development of the initiative at the Central Bank site. “The idea of ​​creating a national antifraud platform was discussed last year, but it was decided to abandon it due to the high cost and ambiguous effectiveness,” the MegaFon press service clarified to Kommersant. The company explained that telecom operators, the Central Bank and banks decided to “launch a pilot project of information interaction.” Tele2 emphasizes to Kommersant that operators are already working with all banks that want to exchange information about fraudulent calls. VimpelCom says it cooperates with “some large banks.”

Bankers are much more enthusiastic about the idea. VTB considers data exchange with operators important to protect clients from fraud. Rosbank supports the creation of a unified anti-fraud platform.

“Building a unified system that will allow you to quickly receive information from different sources will help the existing technical means and algorithms of banks and operators to work more efficiently,” says Alexey Voylukov, vice-president of the Association of Russian Banks. “It is important to determine what minimum and sufficient amount of information is needed for a unified anti-fraud platform,” adds Ruslan Lozhkin, director of the cybersecurity department at Absolut Bank.

“We support any interaction between banks and telecoms. It is obvious that existing measures are not enough,” says Oleg Zamiralov, deputy head of the Tinkoff Center for Ecosystem Security. He believes that for high-quality interaction between banks and telecom operators, legislative changes are needed.

Currently, the exchange of information between banks and telecom operators is not regulated by law and occurs on a commercial basis. Operators receive money for information about events (changing a SIM card or the device in which it is used); this is a commercial service, explains Kommersant’s interlocutor on the telecom market. “Operators are afraid that new initiatives, including disclosure of information to financial institutions, will deprive them of income,” he says. The bill, which envisaged the creation of a unified service for verifying bank clients to combat fraudulent transactions, was introduced to the State Duma back in 2018. The draft passed its first reading in March 2019, but then its consideration was suspended (see “Kommersant” dated February 28, 2023).

“As far as I know, there is no movement to adopt this project. The prospect of centralized information exchange between operators and banks remains vague,” says a Kommersant source in the information security solutions market. “For modern methods used by attackers, information exchange with telecom operators will not make any difference. It was needed mainly to prevent spam calls. This has now been resolved by the Antifraud system of Roskomnadzor. Technically, the Central Bank needs to integrate with it, not the operators.”

Alexey Zhabin, Yulia Poslavskaya, Tatyana Isakova