Russia plans to introduce additional control over payments on the Internet

Source: CMS Magazine

Payment aggregators in Russia are planned to be put under control, they will have to deal with the identification of sites in order to make illegal transfers impossible, in particular, in favor of the casino. Reports about it RBC. The aggregators will be controlled by banks and non-bank credit organizations (NPOs).

The changes will be introduced if amendments to the law “On the National Payment System” are passed to the State Duma by the head of the Financial Market Committee Anatoly Aksakov, the first deputy chairman of the Council of the Federation Committee on Budgets and Financial Markets, and two other deputies.

According to the amendments, payment aggregators in the status of a bank payment agent will be required to enter into agreements with online stores and online services for the provision of services on behalf of a credit organization - a bank or NPO. In this case, the aggregators will have to check counterparties, accept settlement of disputed transactions, comply with security requirements for the transfer of funds, plus open a special bank account to work with payers' funds.

Most likely, the amendments will not affect all payment aggregators. Now on the market there are two models of their work. The first collect on their account payments of individuals for goods and services, and then transfer to the recipient - online stores. Services of this kind are carried out for a commission. The latter provide a technological platform for making payments, the latter going through banks without the participation of the aggregators themselves. Now the percentage of aggregators of the first and second types is about 50/50.

According to the analytical company MARC, last year about 66% of domestic Internet sites used the services of payment aggregators. The most popular aggregator is “Yandex. Cashier ”, about 31.7% of resources work with it. Robokassa is in second place with 9.2% of sites. Approximately 4.8% of sites work with Payeer, 4.3% - with UnitPay. PayAnyWay, Wallet One and Interkassa have about 3% each. RBK Money, PayMaster and Platron have 2% each. About 11% of sites work with other aggregators, including PayU, Uniteller, PayOnline, Assist and ECommPay. Each of them accounts for 0.9–1.3% of sites.

Experts believe that the strengthening of regulatory measures in relation to aggregators will be introduced to more effectively work anti-laundering legislation to the activities of payment aggregators. “Aggregators should become part of the payment system and be responsible for enforcing anti-laundering legislation,” said Dmitry Konstantinov, a lawyer at Ilyashev and Partners.

Aggregators have the ability to hide transactions in illegal activities in Russia, including gambling and illegal financial services, in traffic. So do aggregators, which do not always fully identify their clients to the acquiring banks, using one bank terminal to serve many customers. In this case, banks receive material and reputational damage.

“The National Payment Council sent a letter to the Bank of Russia with a request to regulate the activities of these payment aggregators, because the volume of monetary transactions they process is critical,” said Alma Obaeva, Chairman of the Board of the National Payment Council.

The amendments are designed to protect the interests of clients, because in case of problems with the payment aggregator, the funds of his clients will not be seized. Now, on the accounts of payment aggregators of the first type, both the clients' funds and the company's own funds are accumulated. If a specialized account is created, financial flows will be easier to manage, and customers will be protected.

There were many cases when due to problems with aggregators, legal entities and individuals lost money, because the aggregator could not fulfill its obligations.

However, the proposed amendments pose problems. So, if they are accepted, credit organizations and their partners will incur additional costs. Companies will have to rethink their relationships and reformat them under new conditions. “These changes will be associated with some costs on the part of payment aggregators, since the bill provides for the need to open a special account for settlements with suppliers. It is likely that the costs will also be required for the renewal of transactions with credit institutions and suppliers, ”said Maria Panferova, chairman of the board of QIWI Bank.

Experts believe that the amendments to the bill require detailed study, including the creation of working groups to consider this issue.