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Valery Zinchenko’s commentary on circumstances of non-accession to the Faster Payments System

Sberbank failed to join the Faster Payments System within the term set out by the Central Bank. The largest player on the money transfer market may be facing a fine of up to 10 mn rubles, according to lawyers

All systematically important banks except for Sberbank joined the Central Bank's Faster Payments System. In accordance with the law all major credit institutions were supposed to connect to the Faster Payments System no later than October 1, 2019.

Sberbank is not mentioned among those who have joined the project neither on the Faster Payments System website nor in the mobile apps of the three member banks. Another systematically important bank who hadn't been a member of the system until recently, Russian Agricultural Bank, joined the Faster Payments System on September 30.

Originally the Central Bank set the deadline for joining the FPS as September 1, however later in was postponed to October 1. Sberbank’s Head German Gref said in September that Sberbank was not able to connect to the system on time since that “would require considerable improvements on both sides”. The Central Bank noted that Sberbank's late accession to the system is fraught with fines. Gref also mentioned that the bank's readiness to pay the fines, but stressed that “such deadlines may not be set without prior discussion.”

Sberbank’s press office refused to comment on the matter and the Central Bank didn’t answer the question about fines.

What kind of fine is Sberbank facing?

Lawyers consulted by RBC named three types of fines Sberbank may be looking at. But even then they aren't the only option, as the regulator might just issue a warning.

Under art. 74 of the Federal Law on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation the regulator may impose a fine for non-compliance with its regulations in the amount of up to 0.1% of the minimum amount of the charter capital. If the bank fails to comply with the prescriptive order on rectification of defaults, the Central Bank might impose a fine, this time in the amount of 1% of the charter capital, but no more than 1% of the minimum amount of the charter capital, Managing Partner of Pen & Paper Attorneys at Law Valery Zinchenko explained. The minimum amount of the charter capital for a bank with a universal license, like Sberbank, shall equal 1 bn rubles. Therefore, in the first scenario Sberbank will pay at most 1 mn rubles, and in the second one up to 10 mn rubles.

The third option is a fine under art. 15.26 cl. 2 of the Code of Administrative Offences. It provides for administrative liability in case of violation of regulations and other obligatory requirements set forth by the Bank of Russia in the form of a fine of up to 30 thousand rubles, Head of Property and Legally Binding Relations Practice of Amuleks National Legal Service Galina Gamburg.

The Bank of Russia may opt for a warning with a requirement to rectify the default voluntarily, Managing Partner of Pravo and Biznes Managing Company Aleksandr Pakhomov points out. If it's not done, the bank will be issued a prescriptive order, the lawyer continues: “For failure to comply within the specified term with a legal prescription the Code of Administrative Offences (art 19.5 cl. 9) provides for administrative liability in the form of a fine in the amount of 500 to 700 thousand rubles.”

The dispute between the Central Bank and Sberbank

The Central Bank launched the Faster Payments System in January 2019. The system allows for transfer of monetary funds with the use of a telephone number between accounts in different banks as well as payment for purchases with a QR-code. 20 banks have already joined the system, 10 of them are systematically important, including VTB, Gazprombank, UniCredit Bank, Alfa-Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Otkritie, Rosbank, Promsvayzbank, Raiffeisenbank and Russian Agricultural Bank. Of the moment of its launch 2.9 mn transactions worth 25.8 bn rubles have been effected via the system, the Central Bank’s press office told RBC.

The Faster Payments System model is similar to the model of money transfers between physical persons in Sberbank: one may effect an on-line transaction using the mobile number of the recipient of funds. Sberbank held 94% in this segment as of the beginning of this year, according to surveys conducted by the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Justice. According to the Central Bank’s statistics, over the past year Russians transferred 1.4 times as much money from card to card as in 2017: 24.7 tn against 19.05 tn rubles. Therefore, over 25 tn rubles were accounted for Sberbank’s share. Apart from Sberbank itself its transfer system includes Tinkoff Bank, Sovсombank and SDM Bank.

Before launching the Faster Payments System the Central Bank's Head Elvira Nabiullina claimed that accession to the system will be mandatory for all banks. “Individual players would like to maintain their dominance on the market and profit from such payments, and that is a serious obstacle to development of competition on the payments market and accessibility of financial services to the population,” she said.

Gref in turn criticized the FPS and claimed it to be unsafe. “Why should the regulator go with this alternative coercive measure instead of tracking non-discriminatory partnership is unclear to me,” he noted.

By: Yevgeniya Chernyshova