State banks will be forced to transfer clients’ biometrics to EBS - Kommersant

The government sent a directive to four state-owned banks - VTB, Promsvyazbank, Rosselkhozbank and RNKB, according to which they must consider at a meeting of the board of directors the issue of transferring customer biometrics to the Unified Biometric System within ten days, Kommersant . learned At the same time, representatives of Russia's interests in the councils are required to vote for the transfer of data to the EBS.

Why the authorities have now decided to accelerate the process of consolidating the biometrics of citizens in the EBS is not clear. This surprised Kommersant's interlocutors on the market, given the current situation in the economy, problems with import substitution of software, and a shortage of server capacities. One source suggested that the authorities want to "deprive market participants of sensitive information in order to minimize the risks of leaks, while at the same time obtaining a large data pool." Perhaps we are talking about the desire to accelerate the introduction of biometrics in government services.

It is not clear how exactly the transfer of biometric data that banks collected for themselves, as part of their projects, to the EBS will be organized. One of Kommersant's sources called the task "almost impossible." Firstly, the data from the banks' own biometric databases do not meet the strict requirements of the EBS. Secondly, it is not clear how to observe the rights of citizens.

Another source of the publication says that the authorities have two options for solving the problem of formalizing relations with citizens: through the adoption of a special law or by confirming consent, for example, using an electronic signature in the ESIA.

EBS was established in 2018. Its operator is Rostelecom. And, although more than two hundred banks provide data collection in the EBS, according to the Central Bank website, it now has only 236.4 thousand users. In banks, according to expert estimates, millions of biometric records are collected. In the future, the import of biometrics to the EBS may also affect the largest player - Sberbank, as well as private banks, Kommersant notes.

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Last year, Kommersant, citing sources , wrote that the authorities plan to dramatically (from 164,000 in March 2021 to 70 million in 2023) increase the number of entries in the EBS in two years. The publication indicated that for this the government could close remote access to a number of public services in the absence of biometrics and start collecting data not only through banks, but also through the MFC and a special mobile application.