Page 67 - RusRPTNov18

arbitration exclusively under Russian law. According to the council, there are numerous international agreements on insurance that Russia is not party to. The amendment should either exclude this clause or reformulate it to apply only to Russian citizens. Domestic insurers support the current formulation but complain that there are too few regulations—from soft accreditation and licensing procedures to limitations on the central bank’s control—preventing foreign insurers from entering the market.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has started preventive check-ups of Non-State Pension Funds ( NPFs), including randomly interviewing the clients of the NPFs, reviewing contracts, and other measures, Kommersant daily reported on October 12 citing unnamed sources in two funds. The CBR has reportedly toughened supervision of the sector that enters a transitional period amid the pension reform, seeking to root out misleading clients as NPFs will soon start competing for Russians' pension savings.
The Central Bank is planning to improve and automate the monitoring system for suspicious operations in banks , said Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Vasily Pozdyshev at a press conference on October 9. “In the future, we propose using this technology to refine this system so that banks and the Central Bank can monitor current operations online, including using the fast payment system and the Bank of Russia transfer system,” Pozdyshev said. A simplified manual monitoring system is being applied. “We give the banks lists of clients who are involved in shadow transactions. And banks, relying on these lists, process these lists quarterly and, as we think, should not conduct or, at least, before conducting, check transactions with these customers, ”Pozdyshev explained.
Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the allocation of RUB731.6mn ($10.9bn) from the federal budget to help people with a currency mortgage who find themselves in a difficult financial situation. The funds will be directed to reimburse lenders for mortgage loans, as well as to losses after the restructuring of loans, following the sharp devaluation of the ruble in 2014. How much a person will receive as an aid is not specified. At a government meeting, Medvedev noted that assistance would be provided to the most needy families who could continue to live in apartments acquired with a mortgage, reports TASS. The program of assistance to borrowers in a difficult situation was launched in May 2015. According to Medvedev, RUB6.5bn have already been allocated for it, assistance was provided to 20,000 families.
State banks late on biometric data collection. Russia's state banks are unlikely to have the infrastructure for the biometric data system in place by the rollout date. Rostelekom is expected to release a decision on cybersecurity standards for biometric data in two weeks, and state-owned banks must still go through the tender process in order to purchase software.
It's typical of Russian economic policy to put firms in this position: to mandate a change that they can't reasonably fulfill in time because of a lack of resources available on the market. In this case, the biggest part of the story is the fact that Rostelekom is the one providing the means to capture biometric data. The FSB is also working with the Ministry of Digitalization (Digital Affairs) and Rostelekom on the implementation of the internet of things. They're undoubtedly going to be involved in data collection and storage with these biometric systems too, which is going to make state banks a valuable
67 RUSSIA Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com