Bank of Russia adopts procedure for refusing to credit funds received via fraudulent transfers
The Bank of Russia has sent recommendations to credit institutions outlining the procedure that will help individuals document their refusal to credit to their accounts money transferred to them as a result of fraudulent transactions and return it to victims. These recommendations are designed to improve interaction between banks and their customers whose information has been entered into the regulator’s database.
Banks are advised to ensure that customers be able to file applications (regarding their refusal to have funds credited to their accounts) at bank branches, by calling hotline telephone numbers, or through online banking systems.
An individual wishing to return money to a fraud victim using this procedure must specify in his/her application the number of the relevant request regarding authorised fraud (REQ). The Bank of Russia will provide this identifier of a fraudulent transfer to the individual following the review of his/her application for removing his/her details from the database.
Upon receiving the individual’s application regarding his/her refusal to have funds credited to a bank account, the bank should return funds in the amount of a fraudulent transaction to the payer’s bank. Then, the latter should credit funds to the victim’s account and send the relevant information to the Bank of Russia. The regulator will take this information into account when deciding on removing customer information from the fraud database.
The Bank of Russia will monitor banks’ compliance with the recommendations.