Bank of Russia to Scrutinise Cross-Border Bitcoin Transfers by Citizens

The Bank of Russia has mandated 19 financial institutions to examine cross-border transfers by resident individuals related to cryptocurrency purchases. This is outlined in the regulator’s approved inspection programme for late 2024 to early 2025.

The regulator aims to assess the volume of digital currency transactions, particularly stablecoins, conducted by Russians abroad.

From October to December, commercial banks will review transactions from the first to the third quarter of the current year. A similar examination will be conducted in the first quarter of 2025.

The requested information includes:

• method of transfer (via payment systems, with or without account opening, using electronic money);
• counterparty recipient/sender;
• country code of the recipient/sender bank;
• currency code of the transfer;
• number of transactions;
• amount of transfers (including suspicious transactions).

The study will involve 19 banks, including Asian-Pacific Bank, Avangard, Ak Bars, BCS Bank, Kuban Credit, MTS Bank, Raiffeisenbank, Solidarity, Soyuz, Citibank, UniCredit, and Unistream.

In April 2024, a pilot project was launched to establish links between fiat and cryptocurrency transactions by users, involving the Bank of Russia, Rosfinmonitoring, and five major banks.

In June, Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov announced oversight of cross-border cryptocurrency movements by Russians using special software.