Settle accounts: the Central Bank urged to accelerate the adoption of the law on multi-banking

It will be faster to collect all accounts and deposits from different banks in one application if the Central Bank meets the market halfway. Its participants asked representatives of the regulator to speed up the adoption of the law on open APIs, according to a letter from the Fintech Association (Izvestia has it). With the client's consent, banks will be able to exchange data on their transactions and balances. This will increase user convenience, allow for a more accurate assessment of their ability to pay and offer more suitable products, but at the same time simplify the comparison of conditions and the transition to competitors. Who will benefit from open banking and why financial organizations are rushing representatives of the Bank of Russia — in the Izvestia article.

Why are banks rushing the Central Bank

Multi-banking is already partially operating in Russia, which allows you to see the products of several organizations in one interface. For example, a customer launches his bank's mobile application and sees cards and accounts from other financial organizations in addition to the accounts opened in it.

More than 700,000 people already use the service, with 78% living outside Moscow and the Moscow region. This assessment was given by T-Bank at the last Financial Congress, in the application of which you can also see the accounts of Sberbank, VTB and Alfa Bank. In December 2025, the Central Bank approved ten standards for open API technology, which provides such information exchange. The rules were developed by the Fintech Association (AFL), and more than 20 major banks are testing the transfer of information, said Dmitry Gritskevich, head of Banking and Financial Market Analysis at PSB.

However, for now, the requirements to share data according to certain standards are voluntary. Therefore, banks can create incompatible solutions, and the security of the entire system will depend on the weakest participant, the AFL warns. In addition, it is still unclear to the market who is responsible for what, how to obtain customer consent, and what information should be shared for free, said Freedom Global analyst Vladimir Chernov. According to him, the law was expected to be adopted in 2025, and the mandatory launch would begin in 2026.

In this regard, the AFL and the largest banks have asked the Central Bank to speed up the preparation of the law on open APIs. According to the players, the pilots have already proved the relevance of the solution, but without general rules, its development may slow down.

"The participants of the pilot projects who supported the initiative of the Bank of Russia have invested significant resources in its implementation. Without legislative consolidation, these investments may not receive the expected return," the AFL letter says.

The Fintech Association sent its letter to the regulator following the results of the Financial Congress. Sber, VTB, Sovcombank, Gazprombank and T-Bank participated in the discussion. The Association proposed to consolidate the mandatory use of open APIs first for systemically important credit institutions, then you can connect the rest. According to the association, four conditions are needed for a mass launch: a clear economic model, uniform standards, a simple connection process, and a federal law.

Currently, T-Bank, Sber, VTB and Alfa-Bank are connected to multi-banking. Clients of T-Bank and VTB can see not only debit account balances, but also deposits with savings accounts. In June, T-Bank accounts became available to the entire SberBank Online audience, and in September, a pilot between T-Bank and Sovcombank is planned. Of the 700,000 users, about 450,000 are on the T-Bank app.

Izvestia sent a request to the Central Bank.

Why simplify the connection?

Currently, adding an account of another bank for a client can take up to 15 steps, which reduces the number of completed connections, the AFL notes. The Association is already designing a shorter scenario, but simplification should not reduce security.

— The key task is easy onboarding. Any unnecessary step is switching to another application, entering data is the loss of a customer," said Kirill Tsarev, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank.

Pavel Salugin, Executive Vice President of Gazprombank, noted that so far, participants are more likely to create point integrations.

"The client's path should be reviewed radically, not cosmetically," he stressed.

Andrey Emelin, Chairman of the National Financial Market Council (NSFM), believes that at the first stage, the rules can be quickly consolidated by amendments to the current banking legislation, and a special act can be returned to during the transition from open banking to open finance and open data. At the same time, a single format is necessary: otherwise, each bank will have to set up an exchange with all the others separately.

For small regional banks with a basic license, it is more reasonable to leave participation voluntary, the head of the NSFR believes. Some of these organizations do not have the resources to implement the technology at the required level of protection.

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Why do they need to be expanded and what risks do businesses and consumers face if the process drags on?

What you will have to pay for

The market has yet to decide which data banks should transfer for free, and for which services they will be able to charge a commission, said Maxim Grigoriev, CEO of the Fintech Association.

— In international practice, basic data — balances, transaction history — is usually free. Services with additional value are becoming paid. At the same time, there is often a grace period of two to three years so that the first participants can recoup their investments," he explained.

Sergey Khromov, Vice President and Director of the Department of Key ecosystem products at T-Bank, believes that the transfer of information should remain free at the start. According to him, otherwise it will slow down the development of technology. In the future, multi-banking may also become an official way to verify income.

— Free data is the basic principle at the initial stage, when the market has not yet been formed. The value of the technology is not yet fully obvious to the mass user, and the introduction of fees for data access will create a barrier to the development of services and prevent the market from scaling," he said at the Financial Congress.

At the same time, open banking is unlikely to significantly increase price competition, according to Dmitry Gritskevich from PSB. Customers already use the services of several financial organizations, and marketplaces and transfers to themselves through SBP of up to 30 million per month have made the transition between them much easier.

Sberbank believes that after the adoption of the initiative, financial organizations will compete more actively with the quality of services and convenience for Russians. Deputy Chairman of the Board of the House.Nikolay Kozak of the Russian Federation expects an increase in customer mobility and notes that uniform rules will speed up decision-making and reduce costs. MTS Bank added that data exchange will help to combat fraud more effectively, and users will receive more useful services in a familiar application.

How data will be protected

Open banking does not mean the automatic transfer of all information, Sberbank emphasized. The client decides for himself what information to provide, to whom and for how long, and may revoke consent. Logins and passwords are not shared with third parties.

Maxim Grigoriev from AFL noted that in some partner integrations, consent is issued as a PDF file with a simple electronic signature that cannot be automatically verified. The open API standards use the principle of Security by Design: access is protected by cryptographic tokens, which eliminates the risk of consent forgery, the head of the AFL said.

Mass exchange increases the number of potential points for cyber attacks, warns Vladimir Chernov from Freedom Global. Therefore, the law should determine the responsibility of the participants, the procedure for compensation of damages and the requirements for information systems. To manage permits, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance are creating a commercial consent Platform based on public services, where only consents will be stored, but not the financial data itself, the analyst added.

Information should be transmitted exclusively with the client's permission, using encryption and the Central Bank's unified API standards, emphasized Nikolai Kozak from Dom.RF. Andrey Emelin from NSFR believes that the mandatory requirements will increase security: the participant will not be connected to the system until he fulfills the established security level.

Thus, the main advantage will be gained by the bank, whose utility will become a single window to all his money for the client. It will be easier for the user to see the full picture of their finances and manage them from a single application.