Bankers warned about the queues after the abolition of fees for payment of utilities

the Association of banks of Russia sent the first Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on Finance Igor Divinsky proposals for amendments to the second reading of the bill prohibiting the collection banks, payment agents and “Mail of Russia” commissions for payment of utility bills. Bankers also asked about the support of the head of the FAS Igor Artemyev (with copies of documents reviewed “RG”).

Earlier, the government banned include the Bank fee in the rates of resource supply organizations, the ban comes into force on 13 September 2020. Thus, banks will lose the opportunity to receive remuneration for the collection of payments with suppliers and consumers.

According to bankers, this will lead to a long list of negative consequences:

the withdrawal from the market of institutions to receive payments, increase cash, and possibly to the emergence of not falling under the regulation of intermediaries, which will still take a Commission for the best service;

– increase of waiting 40 to 90 minutes due to the collapse locations;

– the refusal of banks services associated with the transfer of the meter, a reminder of the debt, partial payment, maintenance of registries, and without them will increase the costs of payment processing and risk of error;

– critical reduction in collection rates, which in the regions where suppliers pay the fee, reach 96-99%.

– the inclusion in the tariff of costs of the suppliers on their own points of reception of payments, which may be 4-5 times higher than the cost of the agent network;

– the transfer of expenses banks to receive payments in the prices of other services to natural persons;

– the loss of more than 100 thousand jobs due to the collapse of the network of reception of payments.

According EMISS, citizens in 2018 actually paid for housing and utilities 2.5 trillion rubles. Fees for receiving payments are estimated at 2-3%, especially in sparsely populated and remote areas was also noted in the conclusion to the bill to ban commissions, prepared by the Duma Committee on housing policy and housing and communal services.