The Central Bank will allow payments to non-financial companies

Non-financial companies and non-banking financial companies will be able to initiate and make transfers: aggregate non-cash payments, accept card payments (acquiring), open electronic wallets and make transfers between them. This initiative was taken by the Central Bank.

Excerpts from the regulator's report are given by Vedomosti. The circle of organizations for which restrictions will be lifted includes insurers, private pension funds, microfinance organizations, as well as large Internet search engines and retail chains.

Changing the business model will reduce the cost of providing services, the Central Bank believes. To this end, it is planned to introduce the institution of non-bank payment service providers (NPSPs) with two types of payment services:

• initiating transfers with the consent of clients by sending orders to their bank accounts in credit institutions;
• making transfers, including accepting electronic means of payment (cards, electronic wallets, online transfers), aggregating transfers and opening electronic wallets for small and medium-sized businesses.

Non-financial organizations will be able to obtain the status of NPPU after being included in the register of the Bank of Russia, subject to the minimum requirements for net asset value, etc. NPPU will be required to use separate bank accounts in order to carry out transactions on them only for the provision of payment services. All activities will be under the supervision of the Central Bank.

NFOs (non-bank financial institutions) will be able to provide payment services to citizens in the status of non-bank credit institutions, the regulator suggests. It is expected that the settlement risk will be minimized by separating customer funds in a correspondent account. The idea has yet to be discussed with the market, said Vladimir Chistyukhin, deputy chairman of the Central Bank.