Aliens

The Central Bank has found another way to combat money laundering

Yesterday, the Bank of Russia published a letter “On the specifics of accepting non-resident legal entities who are not Russian taxpayers for banking services.” The regulator recommends that you treat such clients very carefully, since it is through non-resident companies that illegal transactions are usually carried out. The next step of the Central Bank in the fight against money laundering, according to market participants, may lead to the desired effect, but at the same time it will complicate the work of banks. Now they will have to diversify the criteria for assessing all non-resident clients, some of whom are completely law-abiding.

The document recommends collecting additional information about non-resident companies, including letters of recommendation, requesting from them information about their main counterparties, the volume and nature of banking operations, receiving financial statements from them, etc. Thus, the Central Bank plans to reduce the activity of such companies, because many of them were created to conduct illegal operations.

As the deputy chairman of the board of a large Russian bank notes, in the cases of many credit institutions whose licenses were revoked in connection with the “anti-money laundering law”, non-resident companies actually appeared. “These recommendations may have the desired effect, but at the same time they will complicate the work of banks - they will have to deal with each specific client,” he believes.

“Banks will certainly try to comply with the recommendations of the Central Bank, while most likely in internal documents they will classify non-resident clients according to criteria confirming their reliability and business reputation - this is brand awareness, the presence of high international ratings,” says the chief accountant Orgresbank Tatyana Sharova. --Large, well-known companies will be subject to different evaluation criteria than unknown borrowers. In accordance with these recommendations, special attention will be paid to companies registered in offshore zones.”

Natalia ROMANOVA