anti-money laundering

As Kommersant learned, the Central Bank sent out letters in which it recommended that banks abandon the words “numbered” in the names of accounts and deposits. He believes that this is contrary to the law “On combating the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime.” Sberbank of Russia was the first to respond to the recommendation - as of February 15, it is renaming its numbered deposits and renewing contracts with clients.
At the end of January, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Andrei Kozlov signed letter N7-T "On the implementation of the federal law 'On combating the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime'." It states, in particular, that “a number of credit institutions currently use the practice of opening so-called ‘numbered’ accounts” (for more details, see the reference). Meanwhile, the procedure for opening and maintaining accounts must comply with Art. 7 of this law, that is, when banks carry out transactions on accounts and deposits of individuals, they must identify them. For this purpose, the Central Bank recommends that banks stop using the word “numbered” in the names of deposits and accounts.
Sberbank of Russia was the first to respond to this, which, however, is not surprising - of the largest Russian retail banks, only it opened deposits with this name. And no real benefit in the fight against money laundering is expected from their abolition. After all, such contributions were not anonymous. The fact is that, as Sberbank press secretary Sergei Girnis explained, to open such deposits, as well as to withdraw money from them, it was necessary to present a passport.
Be that as it may, last week it was announced that deposits of the “Special Numbered Sberbank of Russia” will now be called “Special Numbered Sberbank of Russia”. However, for Sberbank depositors, almost everything will remain the same: the new types of deposits introduced by Sberbank are not much different from the previous ones. After all, the only difference between “numbered” deposits and other deposits was that the owner’s name was not entered in the savings book itself. And in the event of its loss or access to it by third parties, the owner of the deposit remained unknown.
True, clients who want to open a “numbered” deposit in Sberbank have another week. At least, the official press release of Sberbank says that new types of deposits will be introduced from February 15. Depositors who opened “Special Numbered Sberbank of Russia” deposits with different storage periods at Sberbank before this date, when they visit the bank’s structural divisions, will be asked to enter into additional agreements to change the name of the deposit.” And if we take into account that Sberbank has “numbered” deposits for a period of two years, then it will not be possible to listen to proposals to re-register the deposit soon.
KIRILL J-YACHEISTOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 22/P dated 02/10/2003, page 14

The Central Bank renamed Sberbank deposits