Financial institutions will join forces to create a database of clients who are denied opening accounts or conducting transactions on anti-money laundering grounds. The “injured” party should have the right to challenge its inclusion in the list, experts believe.

Bankers will tell their colleagues about suspicious clients. The Central Bank supported the creation of a unified “anti-money laundering” register of companies. It will include those players who were refused by financial institutions to open accounts, carry out certain transactions, or with whom the existing contract was simply terminated early. The “black list” will be useful, although the proposal requires improvement, noted Olesya Lukhtay, head of the Lanta-Bank customer service department.

“The Central Bank’s initiative is good, but usually they propose to shift most of the work to banks. But the fact is that we already send a lot of suspicious messages to Rosfinmonitoring. There are a lot of criteria for questionable transactions, there are no clear concepts, so I would like an answer from the regulators see too,” Lukhtay told Kommersant FM.

According to Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Dmitry Skobelkin, conscientious banks often lack data on the client’s financial history. Another question is that refuseniks should be informed about their inclusion in the “anti-money laundering register,” says Investcafe analyst Mikhail Kuzmin.

“If a client is refused to open an account or perform some transaction, then the bank must explain why he was denied this operation. That, for example, he was included in this list. And then the borrower can contact the regulatory body, The Central Bank is asking for comments on whether it really was included in this list. There are, of course, many subtle points here, but I believe that if there is no opportunity to challenge the decision to be included in this register, then bona fide bank clients could really suffer,” Kuzmin noted.

It is important to monitor the security of the database of refuseniks, experts say. Otherwise, the information may escape and harm a large number of players, noted Stanislav Volkov, director of banking ratings at Expert RA.

“It is possible to resolve subtle issues related to data leakage, because as soon as a certain common base appears, the question arises whether the information contained in this database will be used to the detriment of companies,” Volkov believes.

According to media reports, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance and Rosfinmonitoring should submit their proposals for a new register of suspicious clients by June 2014.

Alexey Kiselev

"Conscientious clients may suffer"