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

Russia’s central bank is preparing to develop a new platform that will help it crack down on illegal crypto OTC services and suspicious financial activities.

Russia’s central bank is reportedly planning to create a new platform aimed at making it harder for shadow businesses to misuse banking services for illegal activities, including crypto-to-fiat over-the-counter platforms that bypass KYC procedures.

The Central Bank of Russia is working with the country’s financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring, banks and local experts to create a system that will help detect and block customers involved in illegal financial transactions, Russian news outlet RBC reported, citing Bogdan Shabila, head of financial monitoring. is collaborating. and currency control service at the Bank of Russia.

The platform will reportedly allow the central bank to share information about suspicious activities with financial lenders, helping them prevent illegal financial transactions. The focus is on individuals – also known as “drippers” – who present debit cards for money laundering or illegal activities, including drug transactions, online casinos, crypto exchanges/OTC services or pirate websites.

central database

Shabya explained that the central bank has already established online tracking systems with certain banks to track individual transactions. However, it is currently only able to share information about “droppers” with the banks where these customers have accounts. Shblya added that because bad actors often open accounts at multiple banks, there is a need to centralize data and “share information with all credit institutions.”

Currently, banks do not have the authority to reject a person’s account solely based on information that suggests that person may be involved in downgrading activities. The most a bank can do right now is to open an account and block remote banking services for that account. However, Shabila explained that these decisions are often made after suspicious transactions have occurred.

The timeline for the platform’s launch is unclear. Shabila stated that the problem was “still under development” and emphasized that the central bank aims to find an “acceptable solution” that solves the problem without creating social tension or affecting honest citizens.