Data of cellular subscribers will be put in banks – Newspaper Kommersant No. 34 (7479) dated February 28, 2023

The Central Bank is finalizing a bill regulating the exchange of information between banks and telecom operators as part of customer verification. The document, which passed the first reading in 2019, was frozen, but gained relevance against the backdrop of an increase in theft of funds in 2022. Operators are now exchanging information with banks about customer SIM card registrations on a commercial basis. Regulation of the process will speed up the detection of fraud, the financiers hope. But operators fear loss of revenue.

Kommersant’s sources in the government, financial and telecommunications sectors said that the Central Bank returned to the idea of ​​legally regulating the exchange of information between banks and telecom operators. This, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors, is, in particular, about cases of changing SIM cards, a mobile device and other technical information. It is planned to consolidate the exchange of data through the Unified Information System for Verifying Information about Subscribers of Telecom Operators (EIS PSA), which is supervised by Roskomnadzor, Kommersant sources say.

The initiative has been discussed for more than a year, in 2018 a group of deputies (Anatoly Aksakov, Igor Divinsky and others) submitted a bill to the State Duma, which involved the creation of a unified verification service for bank customers to counter fraudulent transactions. The draft passed the first reading in March 2019, but then its consideration was suspended. Now they have returned to the idea amid the growth of Internet fraud and cyberattacks, says a Kommersant source in the government.

Although in 2022 the number of cases of theft of money from bank accounts of Russians decreased for the first time in seven years (by 15.31%, to 877 thousand), the amount of damage increased by 4.3%, to 14.2 billion rubles. (see Kommersant dated February 14). The Central Bank reported that, on its initiative, more than 750,000 telephone numbers used by fraudsters were blocked (see Kommersant on February 6).

The Central Bank confirmed to Kommersant that, with the participation of the authorities, they are working on preparing a bill for consideration in the second reading. Roskomnadzor “participates in the discussion of the initiative.” The same is said in VTB, where they “support its implementation.” In other large banks, “Kommersant” did not answer.

MTS reported that they are also participating in the discussion, “considering it important to protect subscribers.” However, operators are critical of the idea. So, MegaFon believes that the appearance of an intermediary in the transfer of information “will contribute to additional costs for the creation of the appropriate infrastructure and, consequently, an increase in tariffs.” Tele2 explains that the goals of operators and banks do not coincide. “As part of the implementation of the EIS PSA, banks are pursuing the goal of optimizing costs,” they note there. The company insists on “preserving an adequate commercial component in cooperation with banks.” Vimpelcom declined to comment.

Now operators receive money for information about events (changing a SIM card or a device in which it is used), this is a commercial service for commercial structures, says Irina Levova, director of strategic projects at the Internet Research Institute. “Regulatory intervention in commercial relations will primarily harm operators by depriving them of income for services and the ability to negotiate a tariff with every financial institution,” she says. Banks, in her opinion, will lose the opportunity to receive individual technical conditions, taking into account the load, which makes it possible to ensure the continuity of the service.

Today, only the largest banks have direct contracts with cellular operators to alert them to fraudulent events with customer phones (change of SIM card, number owner, device, etc.), said Andrey Yemelin, head of the National Council of the Financial Market. “The bill stalled in 2018 because operators want to be paid based on the number of requests, and it is clear that large banks will have many of them and the tariff is low, while for small ones the price may be unaffordable,” he says. Around the tariffs “now there are all disputes”, it is assumed that they will be approved by the government, emphasizes Mr. Yemelin.

Tatyana Isakova, Maxim Builov