Effective September 1, 2026, Federal Law No. 461-FZ comes into force, granting Rosfinmonitoring the right to directly receive information from the National Payment Card System (NPCS) regarding transactions using the Bank of Russia's Fast Payment Service (FPS), the universal payment code, and Mir payment cards. The agency confirmed that the amendments are aimed at expanding data sources for the anti-money laundering system — as reported by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.
A significant portion of domestic Russian transfers passes through the NPCS infrastructure — transactions on Mir cards, payments via the Fast Payment System (SBP), and transfers using the unified QR code. Previously, to reconstruct the chain of fund movement, Rosfinmonitoring had to send requests to each bank separately. Now, a significant part of the route can be obtained directly from the NPCS, bypassing individual credit institutions.
What the Agency Will Get
The information will be provided free of charge through a personal account or, in particular, via the Unified System of Interdepartmental Electronic Interaction (SMEV). At the same time:
- no minimum transaction amount for a request is established by law;
- requests are not limited to transactions made after September 1, 2026;
- customer consent or a court order for data transfer is not required;
- customers are not notified about the fact of information transfer — the NPCS is directly prohibited from disclosing this fact.
The procedure for interaction — timelines, methods of providing information, its volume and composition — will be determined by a separate agreement between Rosfinmonitoring and the NPCS, which is concluded in coordination with the Central Bank. The terms of this agreement are not publicly disclosed, so the exact boundaries of access — what specific transaction history the agency can retrieve and whether bulk selections are permitted — are currently unknown.
What the Law Does Not Change
The law does not introduce new taxes, automatic account freezes, or other coercive measures. If, as a result of data analysis, Rosfinmonitoring sees signs falling under the scope of Law No. 115-FZ (the law "On Counteracting the Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and the Financing of Terrorism") — transit schemes, cash withdrawals, or a network of linked cards — further actions will follow the already existing procedure: requests for documents, interaction with banks, tax and law enforcement agencies. The inspection mechanism itself does not change — the speed of obtaining source data changes.
The NPCS performs the functions of an operational and payment clearing center for Mir cards and the SBP, as well as the operator of the unified QR code, which is why the main volume of domestic payments in the country passes through it.
The changes will primarily affect those operations that were previously difficult to track through individual banks — transfers between different cards and services will now be visible as part of a single picture through the NPCS infrastructure. At the same time, the new data acquisition channel does not affect blockchain technology — it deals exclusively with ruble payments within the Russian payment system.
AI Opinion
From a data architecture perspective, a direct channel between the supervisory authority and the payment infrastructure operator eliminates intermediaries but simultaneously creates a single point of concentration for sensitive information — the technical vulnerability of such a node becomes more significant than the vulnerability of an individual bank. A similar vector of strengthening supervisory powers is noticeable outside Russia as well: since mid-2025, the European agency AMLA has gained the right to directly supervise the EU's largest banks and impose fines, bypassing the previous multi-step coordination procedures. The difference in the Russian model lies in the absence of a public text of the agreement between Rosfinmonitoring and the NPCS and in the prohibition of notifying the customer about the fact of data transfer, which reduces the transparency of the mechanism specifically for the cardholder.
Whether the volume of such requests will remain limited to the purposes of anti-money laundering control, or whether law enforcement practice will over time expand the scope of the law's application — is a question whose answer will only be shown by future enforcement practice.
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