Not listed in banks – Newspaper Kommersant No. 182 (7383) dated 10/03/2022

Sberbank, Promsvyazbank (PSB) and VTB issue cards to those mobilized within the framework of the SVO, Kommersant found out. At the same time, according to eyewitnesses, in military registration and enlistment offices, often, having taken away their passports, they do not give out military tickets, which causes problems with issuing bank cards. But, even after receiving a card, a mobilized person may not be able to manage the money on it due to the lack of infrastructure and the Internet, experts conclude.

As it became known to Kommersant, payment cards for crediting monetary allowances to citizens called up for partial mobilization to participate in the SVO are issued by three banks – VTB, PSB and Sberbank. According to the website “explaining.rf”, monetary allowance can be credited to any card of the Mir payment system, which the mobilized person indicates at the military registration and enlistment office, but many are given new cards. “PSB issues cards to mobilized citizens to credit them with monetary allowance,” the bank said. Sberbank noted that for the mobilized there are standard requirements provided for citizens of the Russian Federation. VTB declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the question of what documents are required to obtain a card, in some cases, is quite important. According to a Kommersant source familiar with the situation, the military registration and enlistment office takes away the passport from the mobilized, and they refuse to return it even temporarily to issue a card to the citizen. “But they also often don’t give them a military ID, so a person called up for military service remains without documents, and he has difficulties with issuing a card,” he continues. “There are cases when bank employees went towards the mobilized and issued a card according to a photocopy of the passport.

However, banks, even if they make concessions when issuing cards to mobilized citizens, do not officially recognize this. So, PSB “Kommersant” was informed that the availability of documents necessary for identifying a client is a prerequisite for issuing cards. Sberbank reported that “in the absence of an identity document required by law, a bank card is not issued.”

If the mobilized is already served by the bank, this does not solve the problem. It doesn’t matter if the mobilized person already has an account in the bank in which the card is opened for him, the client must be identified, Vadim Tkachenko, a lawyer and founder of the wCube consulting group, points out.

“A military ID is an official identification, so in some cases it can be provided instead of a passport,” he says. At the same time, Vadim Tkachenko draws attention to the fact that the order of the Ministry of Defense on the military registration system, issued at the end of 2021, states that a military ID is issued at the conclusion of a contract or conscription, so it must be in the hands of the mobilized.

However, according to experts, even for the mobilized person who received the card, his funds may not be available – there may not be ATMs and stores that accept cards near the combat zone. Banks indicate that a citizen who receives a card immediately gets access to the bank’s mobile application, as well as to the remote banking service. True, according to experts, in military units, mobile phones are often taken away from privates, and, as a rule, they do not have access to a computer to use remote banking. In addition, in a war zone there may simply be no Internet, in the absence of which both methods of managing an account are unavailable, and it will be impossible to send money to relatives or pay off the next loan payment.

In this case, the PSB advises the relative to open an additional card with access to the account, which can be issued immediately at the time the main card is issued. Sberbank noted that in order to pay off debt on a credit card, it is recommended to activate the Auto Repayment service in advance. As part of it, the client is automatically deducted funds for a loan from the accounts he has chosen, the bank explained. They also drew attention to the fact that it is possible to instruct a third party to conduct operations on the client’s bank cards by providing a notarized power of attorney. Thus, if the mobilized person himself cannot transfer money to the account from which the loan is repaid, or to a credit card, then relatives and friends can do it for him. “Relatives can transfer funds to a card / account to repay a loan through Sberbank Online or SMS to the recipient’s phone number,” the bank said.

Maxim Buylov