Marking of credit history bureau websites launched
Yandex Search will from now on use a specific symbol to mark websites of credit history bureaus (CHBs) included in the Bank of Russia register. A bureau name will be displayed along with a blue circle containing a checkmark and the text ‘ЦБ РФ’ (the Russian short for the ‘BoR’).
The marking will come in handy for financial consumers searching the web for a financial institution acting in a lawful manner and fully compliant with regulations. Such institutions are supervised by the Bank of Russia, which secures rights and interests of consumers of their services.
Consumers will find this website marking all the more useful in the context of increased fraudulent activities. ‘Illegal companies pretending to be CHBs may promise consumers to provide credit report data or even improve their credit history. In reality, they have no access to this information, so consumers end up paying for a service they never received and disclose their personal data’, Olga Goncharova, Director of the BoR’s Reports Processing Department, warns.
The regulator launched the Yandex Search marketing initiative back in 2017, when microfinance companies were the first to become identified with such markers. Insurance providers and other financial institutions later joined the project.