The amendments to the law on combating money laundering, which have come into force, which strengthen control over cash transactions, will affect only legal entities.

This was announced on Wednesday, January 13, by the press service of the Central Bank to RT.

“As for the control over cash transactions, only legal entities will be subject to mandatory control,” the Central Bank said.

As a reminder, on January 10, amendments to the Federal Law "On Counteracting Legalization (Laundering) of Criminally Obtained Incomes and Financing of Terrorism" came into force in Russia.

The changes imply stricter control over cash transactions in the amount of 600 thousand rubles or more.

"Compulsory control will be subject to any crediting or withdrawal from the account of cash of a legal entity in an amount equal to or exceeding 600 thousand rubles," the Central Bank explained.

Along with this, mandatory control of postal orders in the amount exceeding 100 thousand rubles and the return of funds from the accounts of telecom operators for the same amount are introduced.

In addition, from 2022, cash and non-cash payments for real estate transactions, if the amount exceeds 3 million rubles, will also come under control.

“We consider it important to emphasize that these amendments do not introduce any revolutionary changes.

Thus, the very obligation of financial organizations - subjects of the execution of "anti-legalization" requirements to submit to Rosfinmonitoring information about an exhaustive list of transactions has not changed, the threshold amounts of the transactions themselves, which are subject to such control, have remained unchanged, "the Central Bank said.

According to Rosfinmonitoring, the innovations will not lead to changes in the model of relations between clients and banks.

The service recalled that, according to the current legislation, information on operations subject to mandatory control is transferred to Rosfinmonitoring by banks without imposing any additional obligations on their clients.

"At the same time, the amendments are not aimed at strengthening banks' control over the operations of individuals related to the transfer of funds between them and the crediting and (or) withdrawal of funds from bank accounts," the statement of Rosfinmonitoring says.

The main purpose of the innovations is to reduce the burden on banks when informing Rosfinmonitoring about operations.

This point of view in a conversation with RT was expressed by Nikita Maslennikov, head of the "Finance and Economics" direction of the Institute of Contemporary Development.

According to him, the amendments greatly simplify reporting for financial organizations.

“Now banks must inform Rosfinmonitoring only about those operations that took place directly with them, in their area of ​​responsibility.

Previously, the process was more complicated, long and labor-intensive, because financial organizations had to provide, in principle, all available information on the client, ”Maslennikov explained.

Coming out of the shadow

As Vyacheslav Putilovsky, junior director for ratings of credit institutions at Expert RA, told RT, the new rules will not have a serious impact on ordinary citizens.

Moreover, control over operations will be selective, therefore, mass blocking of accounts or significant delays in transactions should not be expected by law-abiding citizens, the specialist is sure.

In his opinion, the innovations are also aimed at combating money cashing in the gray zone of the economy.

The expert believes that the changes will reduce shadow employment and thereby increase tax collection.

“For example, employers who previously paid part of their salaries in envelopes to reduce the tax burden, will now have to spend more for cashing services.

Thus, in some cases it will be cheaper for them to pay in white.

This is a plus for workers who, due to the new measures, will be able to get out of the shadows, ”explained Vyacheslav Putilovsky.

As Nikita Maslennikov recalled, citizens employed in the shadow sector lose their pension rights, and also experience difficulties in obtaining social assistance and a number of benefits.

In addition to a partial solution to this problem, the amendments will also reduce the share of cash circulation in the economy and thereby curb inflationary risks, the specialist said.

“We saw that in 2020 there was a big jump in the amount of cash in circulation.

The more cash, the greater the inflationary potential.

The measure is also aimed at reducing inflationary risks, ”Maslennikov explained.

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Strengthening the control of postal orders in excess of 100 thousand rubles and the return of funds from the accounts of telecom operators for the same amount is also aimed at eliminating gray schemes.

Artyom Tuzov, executive director of the capital market department of IC Univer Capital, told RT about this.

“Such schemes can be used for tax evasion.

Now the employer or service provider will not be able to transfer such amounts without documentary arguments for what this money is being transferred.

Thus, first of all, the tax office or the bank may require documents - on the basis of which these amounts were obtained.

This will affect individual entrepreneurs and other commercial organizations that have accounts or make such transfers, ”Tuzov explained.