the Central Bank supported the proposal Qiwi about tighter regulation or abolition of the payment agents receiving cash payments from the public for service providers. Gain control should help to combat the schemes of cash.
the Payment company Qiwi offered the Central Bank to tighten control over the activities of payment agents that accept cash payments from the population, or even to abolish them as an institution and to apply the same approach to all market participants acting as intermediaries in the payments. The Bank of Russia supported the proposal, said in the summary document of the proposals of the participants of the payment market (there RBC) for “regulatory guillotine” of the Central Bank. The authenticity of the document confirmed by three sources on the payment market.
“We support changes in legislation to strengthen control over the activities of payment agents, their inclusion in the scope of supervision of the Bank of Russia and the introduction of regulation in the market of reception of payments”, — told RBC representative of the Central Bank.
In the market of reception of cash payments from the public to the utilities, cell phones and other goods, works and services there are agents who work on two models: Bank payment agents (BPA, are regulated by the law on the national payment system) and pay agents (PAS regulated by the law on activities of acceptance of payments from individuals by payment agents). As agents can be juridical persons and individual entrepreneurs. BPA accept payments from individuals by contract with the banks, PA — C provider of goods or services. And those other agents must open a Bank account.
In Russia there are more than 5 thousand of payment agents and Bank payment agents, the draft development strategy of the National payment system until 2023, which was prepared by the Central Bank. By the end of 2019, the agents opened 13.7 thousand Bank accounts, Bank payment agents — four times less (3.5 thousand). But through the accounts of BPA is more money (705,7 billion roubles), than through the PA (635,2 bn).
“Despite the practical identity of the service provided to the customer, from the choice of a particular model of regulation depends on a number of factors, such as taxation, consistency and transparency of operations, economy participants,” the authors of the proposal in Qiwi, adding that the activities of BPA set a much tighter control of the banks with which they cooperate.
“This creates an unhealthy competitive environment in the payment market, leading credit institutions to the need to reach a compromise between deregulation and the growth of licensing risk”, — noted in Qiwi, currently running at aboutMNH models.
in addition, as practical experience shows, the current situation contributes to a large amount of abuse by market participants and prevent the final withdrawal from the industry a gray area, despite the measures taken to control the activities of payment agents (introduction of legal requirements for the surrender proceeds in a special Bank account, the mandatory application of cash register equipment (CCE), etc.), added the company.
the draft strategy of development of NPS, which has not yet been adopted as one of the objectives of the Central Bank called the direct oversight of the paying agents.
If the operations of BPA, installed permanent monitoring of banks, the monitoring of PA is selective, based on the concept of risk-based approach, says managing partner of St. Petersburg office of the bar Association Pen & Paper Alexey Dobrynin.
the Question of control over the activities of the PA is discussed in the market not the first year. The law on payment agents ‘ activity was adopted in 2009, it stipulates that the government should establish a regulatory authority, but more than ten years this was not done, therefore, the Central Bank does not control the PA, says the head of the National payments Council Alma Obaev: “There is indirect regulation by the Federal financial monitoring service and the Department of the Central Bank, which monitor the operations of the special accounts and regulation by the FTS through CCV (control-cash equipment)”. The issue of tightening the regulation of PAS surfaced several times in recent years, but this topic no one seriously engaged, adds the Chairman of the Association of market participants of electronic money and remittances Victor Dostov.
in 2015, the regulator described the scheme of encashment of monetary funds of legal and physical persons, with the active participation of the payment agent: the PA does not pass or not pass in full to the Bank to be credited to your special account cash, and pass them to third party customers. Those “pay for” cash-cash, including by conducting numerous transit operations through a large number of organizations. Received to their accounts non-cash means of payment agents used for accounts payable.
Cashing through to the left as a mass phenomenon after the mandatory installation KKT and gain control of the special accounts, said Dostov: perhaps now doing this separate of small players.
“the need for an alignment of the regulation of Bank payment agents and payment agents some time ago, we discussed our company,” said sthe Deputy General Director of QIWI group, Maria Shevchenko, adding that the company now does not insist on the abolition of the paying agents. “On the contrary, we favour the strengthening of their market position and increased functionality. This will be possible only under condition of ensuring transparency and raising the level of confidence from the regulator to this institution”, — explains Shevchenko.
But the abolition of payment agents will not have a significant impact on availability payments, because the majority of market participants now combine those two roles (BPA and PA), said Deputy Director of Qiwi.
the Ban or tighter regulation of the PA will not affect the consumers of services agrees Obaev, but these changes will definitely affect the reduction in cash funds, which will lead to higher prices for cash on the gray market, the expert believes. With the development of cashless payments, the demand for PAS is reduced, so even if the result of legislative changes, the market will take the part of the players, the consumers is not affected, I’m sure Dostov.
However, “the Messenger”, which operates under two schemes, do not agree with the proposal. “Such innovations will limit such market players as providers of services. Now they directly attract the paying agent, and will have to act through intermediaries in the face of the credit organizations to attract the Bank payment agent. This mediation carries the financial burden. Who will pay — the service provider or end user, is an open question,” said Vice President telecommunications and financial services “Coherent” Maxim Sledkov.
