The armor is strong with communication – Newspaper Kommersant No. 195 (7396) of 10/20/2022

Banks have begun to return employees called up during partial mobilization. According to a Kommersant source in the financial market, the lists compiled by the Central Bank on the basis of applications from credit institutions and sent to the Ministry of Defense have finally begun to enter the military registration and enlistment offices. “There are already cases when representatives of the bank came to the military registration and enlistment office that called their employee, with documents confirming that he was on the list for booking, and they returned him, someone was removed directly from the train,” a source told Kommersant. Another interlocutor of Kommersant confirmed that the lists on forms with a seal and a signature were received by the military registration and enlistment offices last week: on October 13 to regional offices, on October 16 to local ones.

After the announcement of partial mobilization, the Central Bank sent a letter to a hundred systemically important and significant banks in certain markets with a request to provide lists of employees who need a reservation by September 28 (see Kommersant dated September 29). There were two main criteria – the presence of higher education and the critical importance of the employee for the work of the bank.

According to the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, these “include specialists responsible for critical infrastructure, payments and settlements, collection, operation and protection of information systems, shift workers and specialists working with the population and enterprises.” In one of the banks, Kommersant was told that the list should contain no more than 30% of the payroll of employees.

According to Kommersant’s information, the Central Bank sent the generated lists to the Ministry of Defense already on September 30 (see Kommersant on October 10). At the same time, the lists of employees provided by the banks who were included in the final document of the Central Bank were either accepted with great reluctance in the military registration and enlistment offices, or not accepted at all, referring to the need for official confirmation from the General Staff.

The delay in the booking confirmation procedure is largely due to the fact that the lists of bank employees are delivered to the military registration and enlistment offices not by e-mail, but on paper with a seal and signature. Accordingly, and in order to return the mobilized from training or from the unit, they are sent through the messenger. That is, everything is not happening quickly, but the bankers are happy about this. “It means that business processes can be established in a calm mode, without rush work,” the interlocutor in the market believes.

It is understandable why the military registration and enlistment offices were distrustful of the lists that the banks provided them with: after all, they report not to the Central Bank, but to the Ministry of Defense. But if it delivered documents to its subordinates not on paper, but via digital channels, for example, protected by an enhanced qualified electronic digital signature, then the costs of mobilizing and then returning bank employees from parts could be avoided.