THE STATE DUMA SUPPORTS A DRAFT LAW ON LEVELLING THE CHARGES FOR INTRABANK TRANSFERS

According to the document, the commission charged by banks transferring money between physical persons within the same credit organization must be the same in the same region and when transferring funds to another region. The new law is drafted by FAS.

On 12 November 2019, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Kashevarov was an official representative of Russian Government at the plenary session of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation where he presented № 813620-7 draft Federal Law "On amendments to Article 29 of the Federal Law "On banks and banking".

“Under the draft law, the bank fee for money transfer between bank accounts of physical persons within a credit organization cannot be determined by opening accounts in different separate branches of this organization”, said Andrey Kashevarov.

He explained that the new measure is aimed at eliminating the current interregional discrimination of banking services consumers. Some banks, for example, fix elevated commission for interregional money transfer against intra-regional transfers. It all concerns transfers between accounts of physical persons opened in the same credit entity.

According to Andrey Kashevarov, a survey [1] showed that transfers between bank accounts and bank cards of physical persons opened in the same bank are accomplished using the payment infrastructure of this particular bank.

“At the same time, transfers between accounts opened in different regional branches of a bank are in full sense standard internal transfers. It means that they do not create additional value in comparison with transfers within the same territorial zone and do not incur additional services to customers”, emphasized Deputy Head of FAS.

“Therefore, different commissions for such transfers depending on the recipient location in Russia indicate inter-regional discrimination of consumers, and the changes specified in the draft law are aimed exactly at eliminating them”, summed up Andrey Kashevarov.

The following positive effects are expected from removing inter-regional discrimination:

Freedom of monetary funds movement on the financial market of the Russian Federation due to decreased geographical barriers;

Development of non-cash transactions by making them more attractive for end consumers;

Elimination of discriminatory tariff-fixing practices that infringe consumer interests;

Motivating credit organizations to optimize their business-models and business-processes, for example, in the part of technological solutions, to the fullest satisfaction of consumer needs.

A draft Federal Law "On amendments to Article 29 of the Federal Law "On banks and banking" was prepared to fulfill 2018-2020 National Competition Development Plan, the Road Map for Competition Development and the institutions given by the Government of the Russian Federation.

[1] FAS survey was conducted jointly with the Ministry of Finances, the Bank of Russia and the expert community