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- Off the bill: banks warned of the threat of "card slavery" due to new anti-fraud measures
Off the bill: banks warned of the threat of "card slavery" due to new anti-fraud measures
Banks have warned of the threat of "card slavery" due to new measures to combat fraudsters, Izvestia found out. Currently, the Ministry of Finance offers a number of mechanisms, including limiting the number of issued cards to ten per person. The National Council of the Financial Market considers this measure excessive — it is possible to achieve victory over droppers in less harsh ways that will not interfere with customers. Currently, there is no mechanism for quickly closing accounts, which means that customers will, in fact, be linked to the banks where they have card accounts. How this initiative can be corrected is in the Izvestia article.
What is the problem with the limit on the number of cards per person?
Market participants criticized the new anti-fraud measures, which will be included in the second package of draft laws of the Ministry of Finance "Anti-fraud 2.0", Izvestia found out. One of them is to introduce two limits: no more than five cards in one bank and no more than 10 in all banks for one client. The National Council of the Financial Market (NSFM) calls this proposal excessive — representatives of banks are confident that the initiative will bring a lot of inconvenience to ordinary Russians.
According to statistics, about 17% of Russians have more than five cards, and about 6% have more than ten, according to the NSFR's conclusion on the draft law "Anti—fraud 2.0", which the organization sent to the Ministry of Finance. That is, about a quarter of the population already exceeds the planned threshold.
At the same time, it is these active users who are mostly conscientious.: they combine different loyalty programs, use cards for family, not for fraud, it follows from the document. The interbank limit will hit them, not the droppers, who are already under the close control of the banking system.
Droppers are bank customers who provide their cards for cashing out money or making transfers in favor of shady businesses or other illegal transactions. These can be funds from victims of fraudsters, money from drug shops, crypto exchanges and pirate sites.
The problem with the limit is that it creates a risk of so-called card slavery, said Andrey Emelin, head of the NSFR. A person finds himself tied to his banks, where he already has his cards open. He is becoming less mobile, it is more difficult for him to open a new account or "plastic".
— For the client, the difficulty arises precisely at the moment when he wants to issue a new card. If the limit has already been exhausted, there is no mechanism today that allows you to quickly discard a card in order to make room for a new one," explained Andrey Emelin.
A reasonable limit on the number of cards that can be issued per person in one bank is useful in the fight against fraudsters and droppers, the press service of the Central Bank reported. Nevertheless, the number of cards is still being discussed with departments and market participants so that people have enough opportunities, but the changes do not affect their payment habits.
The restrictions imposed by the Ministry of Finance do look excessive, agreed Vladimir Chernov, analyst at Freedom Finance Global. The interbank ceiling creates artificial inconveniences, as many people hold different cards for subscriptions, trips, or profitable cashbacks.
Gazprombank is observing an increase in the number of debit cards per customer, the company's press service said. Increasingly, people are opening plastic in different banks in order to enjoy more favorable rates and conditions for loyalty programs. Transfers through the fast payment system make it easy to move money between accounts, which makes customers even more mobile.
The limitation of the number of cards may affect conscientious consumers, Yulia Suvorova, Director of Legal Affairs and compliance at the financial marketplace "Compare", is sure. According to her, many people issue additional cards to the account for children or family members, and there may not be such an opportunity due to the new measures.
What is the best way to limit the number of cards per person?
At the first stage, it is more reasonable to limit the number to 10 cards in each bank, rather than in the entire system, follows from the NSFR's conclusion on the draft law "Anti-fraud 2.0".
Before lowering the limits, banks offer:
— simplify the client's refusal of unnecessary cards in order to avoid "card slavery" when the limit is reached and it is difficult to close old cards.;
— consider separate limits for debit and credit cards;
— as an alternative to limiting the number of cards, to improve the fraud monitoring system of the National Payment System, for example, to introduce end-to-end control of transactions by phone number.
The total limit will require an expensive card accounting system for all banks, the NSFR clarified. The internal limit of 10 cards is easier to implement — it can be entered quickly, it will not require much money and will still deal a severe blow to the droppers.
Banks share the NSFR's skepticism about the initiative of the Ministry of Finance. Nikita Kulagin, head of the Macroeconomic Analysis Department at Sovcombank, explained that the measure may not have an effect, because many banks are already carefully studying the behavior of suspicious customers. According to him, the solution to the problem may be to improve algorithms for dealing with suspicious transactions.
— Even if people are allowed to have only one bank card, it will not eliminate the problems with droppers and fraud, Nikita Kulagin is sure.
Novikom Bank supports the NSFR initiative. Izvestia sent inquiries to other market participants.
However, the demand for such measures did not come from scratch, said Vladimir Chernov of Freedom Finance Global. In 2024 alone, fraudsters stole 27.5 billion rubles from customers, which is almost three quarters more than a year earlier.
"The limit on the total number of bank cards will seriously complicate the lives of fraudsters and destroy many schemes," said Svetlana Ustyantseva, head of the transaction products development unit at UBRiR's retail business department.
The average customer will benefit in the end: the risk of falling into a fraudulent scheme will be lower, and banks will compete more actively to ensure that their card is in the person's possession due to better service and more favorable conditions, the expert concluded.
Nevertheless, interbank restrictions on the number of cards can damage the market, Vladimir Chernov believes. If a customer quickly reaches the "10 cards for everything" limit, he tries new products less often, and those credit institutions that first occupied his "slots" get the advantage. This reduces the incentives for fair competition with the quality of service and the benefits of offers.
— The mindset of a consumer of financial services works like this: if the maximum number of my cards is limited, then only the most valuable ones should be saved, — explained economist Andrey Barkhota.
In response, banks will retain customers by any means, said Vladimir Chernov. Izvestia previously wrote that closing bank accounts can be delayed for months — this is often also done to combat droppage, but as a result, people remain without access to money for long periods.
In order to maintain customer mobility without breaking protection from fraudsters, it is worth simplifying the card closing process itself, concluded Vladimir Chernov. The remote closing mechanism will help here — such operations will have to take place "day in and day out". It is extremely important to do this without visiting the office — now many banks require the personal presence of the client to close the account.
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