Russia’s central bank to combat illegal crypto OTC services with new surveillance platform: report

As a seasoned crypto investor with a decade-long journey navigating the ever-evolving world of digital assets, I find myself both cautiously optimistic and mildly concerned about the recent announcement from Russia’s central bank regarding their new anti-illegal activities platform.

The Russian central bank plans to create a novel system aimed at enabling them to combat unlawful Over-The-Counter (OTC) cryptocurrency transactions and questionable financial dealings.

It appears the Russian Central Bank is contemplating setting up a fresh system designed to deter illicit activities by making it challenging for underground businesses to use banking services for criminal purposes, such as crypto-to-fiat OTC platforms that skip identity verification measures.

As an analyst, I’m contributing to a collaborative effort between the Bank of Russia, our national financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring, banks, and local experts. Our goal is to establish a system that effectively identifies and halts illegal financial activities by customers. According to recent reports from Russia’s news outlet RBC, this information comes directly from Bogdan Shablya, head of the financial monitoring and currency control service at the Bank of Russia.

It’s said that the platform will facilitate the central bank in disseminating information about potential illicit actions to financial institutions, thus aiding them in thwarting unlawful financial transactions. The emphasis is on individuals, often referred to as “droppers,” who misuse their credit or debit cards for money laundering or illegal activities such as drug sales, gambling at online casinos, trading in cryptocurrencies and OTC services, or dealing with pirated websites.

Centralized database

Shablya clarified that the central bank has established online systems for monitoring individual transactions with certain banks, but currently, it can only disclose information about “suspicious accounts” to banks where these clients maintain accounts. Given that malicious actors frequently open multiple accounts across different banks, there is a pressing need to consolidate data and “exchange information among all financial institutions,” Shablya pointed out.

Currently, banks cannot deny someone an account just because there’s evidence they might engage in money dropping activities. The maximum action a bank can take is to establish an account but restrict online banking services associated with it. These actions typically follow after unusual transactions have taken place, as clarified by Shablya.

It’s uncertain when the platform will be launched, as Shablya stated that the matter is still being worked on and underscored their goal of discovering a “suitable resolution” that resolves the issue without causing societal unrest or impacting innocent people.

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2024-12-25 10:31