Banks are getting rid of paper

Banks will be able to get rid of the need to store documents in paper form; a corresponding project was submitted to the State Duma last week. The savings from eliminating paper document flow in large banks are estimated at 100 million rubles. in year. Experts note that electronic copies of documents will have to be stored in the Central Bank, otherwise there is a high risk of prompt destruction of documentation by unscrupulous players.

Deputy Anatoly Aksakov introduced a bill introducing amendments to the laws “On Banks and Banking Activities” and “On Archiving in the Russian Federation” to the State Duma at the end of last week. It is expected that credit institutions will have the opportunity to conduct document management (drawing and storing accounting documents, as well as financial and statistical reporting) both in paper and electronic form. Currently, paper document flow is mandatory; electronic document management can only be used additionally by banks. According to the bill, the categories of documents that can be submitted in electronic format (without a paper original) will have to be determined by the Bank of Russia within 180 days from the date of adoption of the law. According to the developers of the bill, it has already been discussed with the Central Bank and received approval from the regulator.

According to the developers of the bill, its adoption will allow banks to significantly save on paperwork. “The material costs of paper document circulation and the costs of storing paper documents are more than significant,” the explanatory note notes. According to project developers, the average cost of storing paper documents for the largest Russian banks reaches tens of millions of dollars per year.

100 million rubles

per year a large bank spends on storage, transportation and processing of paper documentation

Market participants are more modest in their assessments of the costs of the traditional method of storing documents, although they recognize the economic feasibility of the changes proposed by deputies. According to Vice President of VTB 24 Valery Mendus, the bank’s annual costs for organizing its own archives and consumables amount to more than 100 million rubles. Natalia Sosnina, head of the department for organizing the operational activities of Alfa Bank's retail business, agrees with this assessment. In addition to storage costs, large volumes of paper documents require additional resources to be removed and moved for regulatory review, she adds. “Storing and processing archival documents on paper requires both separate space and additional employees,” notes Raiffeisenbank Chairman of the Board Pavel Gurin. “The transition to electronic documents will certainly significantly reduce costs, simplify and speed up the collection, processing and systematization of information, as well as ensure prompt provision of documents." “In the long term, the transition from paper to electronic databases will allow large market players to significantly optimize costs,” says Anatoly Predtechensky, deputy chairman of the board of Otkritie Bank.

However, banking electronic document management also has its disadvantages. “Often, before the regulator revokes a license, bank employees try to destroy documents,” says Andrey Sergeev, bankruptcy manager of Dialog-Optim Bank. “Of course, getting rid of digital copies in this case is much easier than paper documents; such risks can only be eliminated in in the event that electronic copies of documents are stored in the Bank of Russia."

Vasily Nantai

Statistics will be converted into numbers