Russians began to complain about blocking of cards, accounts and access to banking applications after July 25. The amendments to Federal Law 161 that came into force obliged banks to return to clients in full all funds sent to fraudsters if the recipient "appeared" in a special database of the Bank of Russia. For some citizens, a transfer questioned by the bank or a sudden SMS about blocking resulted in the loss of access to remote banking services at all credit institutions at once. Bankers admit that the testing of new requirements is not yet ideal. Lawyers note that citizens who do not agree with the blocking have only one lever of influence on the bank and the regulator - the court.
Russians began to complain about blocking their cards, accounts, and access to banking mobile applications after amendments to Federal Law No. 161 "On the National Payment oman whatsapp resource System" came into force on July 25. The purpose of the amendments was to protect citizens from fraud and increase the responsibility of banks. In the "People's Bank Rating" of the financial marketplace "Banki.ru", Forbes found 45 reviews of 16 large banks, in which citizens reported cases of blocking under Federal Law No. 161 and subsequent loss of access to their funds in all banks. Similar cases are described by users of the financial marketplace "Sravni". In all cases studied by Forbes, bank clients insist on their reliability.
Among customer complaints, there are three typical scenarios that result in blocking. The first is when fraudsters open a bank account in a person's name using their personal data. This situation, in particular, happened to 14 Russians who found themselves among MTS Bank clients. All of them claim that they never had or have long closed products in this bank. "On July 27, my Sberbank and VTB cards were blocked due to 161-FZ. I was blacklisted by banks. I wrote a letter to the Central Bank that this was an error and asked to unblock. Two weeks later, I received a response that I was blacklisted by MTS Bank, and because of this, I was blocked everywhere. There is no MTS Bank in Penza, and I have never dealt with this bank," a resident of Penza writes in a review for "People's Rating" (the author's spelling has been preserved). According to her, she has not been able to access her money in another bank for a month.
In another review, a Muscovite lost access to her funds in five banks, and learned about the blocking from the support service of one of them. After contacting the Central Bank, the woman found out that two virtual debit cards had been issued using her passport data without her consent, one of which had already been blocked, and the second was still active at the time of writing the complaint. "That is, MTS Bank submitted information about me to the Bank of Russia for inclusion in the Central Bank database, on the basis of which all my cards were blocked in all the banks of which I am a client, but MTS Bank itself did not block the cards opened in my name," the woman complains.
In its responses to users, MTS Bank noted that the blocking is natural, since according to the new law, banks are required to exchange information about those suspected of fraud. "Transfers were received to the card issued in your name, which the sender's bank identified as fraudulent, as a result of which your data ended up in the FinCERT database of the Bank of Russia," the bank's representative wrote in the response and suggested that the client contact the Central Bank himself to unblock it.
"MTS Bank complies with all legal requirements, which provide for the possibility of issuing virtual prepaid cards with limited functionality by Russian banks without opening an account with simplified identification without personal presence. MTS Bank operates in full compliance with 161-FZ and 115-FZ when concluding an agreement and identifying a client," the bank's press service said in response to a request from Forbes.