Russia’s central bank will develop a new platform to help it crack down on illegal crypto OTC services and suspicious financial activity.
Russia’s central bank is reportedly planning to create a new platform that will make it harder for shadow companies to abuse banking services for illegal activities, including over-the-counter crypto-to-fiat platforms that bypass KYC procedures.
The Bank of Russia is working with the country’s financial regulator, Rosfinmonitoring, banks and local experts to create a system to help identify and block customers involved in illegal financial transactions, Russian news agency RBC reports Citing Bogdan Shablya, head of financial supervision and currency control service at the Bank of Russia.
According to reports, the platform will allow the central bank to share information about suspicious activities with financial lenders, helping them prevent illegal financial transactions. The focus is on individuals – also known as “droppers” – who offer their bank cards for money laundering or illegal activities, including transactions for drugs, online casinos, crypto exchanges/OTC services or pirated websites.
Centralized database
Shablya explained that the central bank has already set up online monitoring systems at certain banks to track individual transactions. However, it can currently only share information about “droppers” with the banks where these customers hold accounts. Since criminals often open accounts at multiple banks, there is a need to centralize data and “exchange information with all credit institutions…”
