Banks will be required to report to financial intelligence about requests from "unfriendly countries

The authorities have prepared amendments to the legislation that will oblige Russian banks to inform financial intelligence and the Central Bank about requests from government agencies from "unfriendly countries". The bill was developed by the Ministry of Finance, it was discussed and approved at a meeting of the government commission on legislative activities, two sources close to the government commission and a source familiar with the preparation of the draft told RBC (RBC has the document).

Work on the document is aimed at "countering unfriendly actions by the United States and other foreign states," follows from the expert opinion of the government apparatus on the bill (available to RBC). RBC sent a request to the Ministry of Finance, Rosfinmonitoring, the Bank of Russia and the government press service.

What is the bill about?

Amendments are planned to be made to the so-called law on counter-sanctions, adopted in 2018 (127-FZ), which contains measures to influence the United States and other foreign states in response to sanctions against Russia. It is proposed to add a new article to it and indicate the obligation of banks to report to Rosfinmonitoring and the Bank of Russia no later than one business day about requests received “from the competent authorities of unfriendly states”. We are talking about the requirements of foreigners to provide information about Russian citizens or Russian companies that constitute commercial, tax or banking secrets, as well as personal data.

The expert opinion to the bill contains explanations that the US Treasury and the US Department of Justice now have the right to require such data from any foreign banks if they have a correspondent account in the US. A similar right has appeared with American government agencies since January 1, 2021, according to the adopted Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the AML Act). The US authorities may ask a foreign bank for any account if one of the following conditions is met: