Central Bank of Russia will not impose penalties on banks for violating the ‘anti-money laundering’ law for half a year

It became known that the Bank of Russia imposed a moratorium on fines for violating the anti-money laundering law until April 1, 2022. We are talking about amendments regarding the tracking of transactions to NPOs and transfers from the approved list of states.

According to Izvestia, the moratorium will come into effect on October 1. According to the new amendments, the Central Bank should control the operations of transferring funds to the majority of non-profit organizations. What is more, the regulator must monitor transfers to the accounts of individuals and legal entities from countries included in the list of Rosfinmonitoring. 

Expanded amendments to the anti-money laundering law were adopted in the summer of 2021.

However, those NPOs that belong to government agencies or are involved in preschool education are not subject to control. To implement the standards, banks need to modernize the organizational and technical component, and therefore the Central Bank decided to postpone it for six months.

Until April 2022, the Central Bank will temporarily not fine credit institutions for violating the new rules. It was also noted that the initiative of the Central Bank was supported by Rosfinmonitoring.

Banks sent a letter to the regulator on the introduction of the moratorium on the day of the adoption of the law. New requirements will require a lot of work.