Russia’s Central Bank may make it easier for banks to access client data without consent

Russia’s Association of Regional Banks has sent a letter to the country’s Central Bank requesting that the requirement for a client to grant its bank consent to access client data from credit bureaus be waived under certain circumstances.

According to newspaper Kommersant, the letter proposes making a client’s consent indefinite once obtained. Under the current law, consent is valid for two months from its receipt or until the end of the loan’s repayment in the event of one being issued. In addition, the association has proposed waiving the consent requirement to access a client’s credit history for all citizens whose names already exist in bank databases.

Mikhail Sukhov, deputy chairman of Russia’s Central Bank, told Kommersant that the association’s request will be considered only if weighty arguments in favor of this simplification are presented. Sukhov admitted that a bank’s failure to access a client’s credit history makes it impossible for a client to qualify for a loan and that obtaining borrower consent has become a bureaucratic formality.