Law on online payments: what will happen to us (and how now the freelancer will get his money)
Dreams of the extraordinary ease of remittances on the Internet from one user to another seem to be a thing of the past. No anonymity, no unidentified individuals transferring money online, follows from the new wording of federal law No. 110, approved by the Russian president. Suddenly you launder illegal incomes, finance terrorists or just help financially, who shouldn't? From now on, any sender must be known.
People got nervous. The earnings of many of our users came to them in the form of impersonal payments, the money was transferred to e-wallets. How to be now? What changed? What will happen next year? Will the end of the Russian freelancing? These questions are asked not only by single designers or small teams of programmers. We, of course, in the company, after the adoption of the law, also thought: does this mean that UBANK , like other financial services that managed to accustom the audience to payment freedom, will have to take a step back?
it's a question
')
We tried to figure out what happened and how it will affect consumers and us. We will not say that we know the answers to all the questions. Many formulations of the law are not completely clear to lawyers, and no one fully understands how it will be applied. Nevertheless, we decided to share some of our findings.
The main thing that made the law: he forbade replenishing bank cards and accounts from virtual wallets, if their owner is not identified (that is, if he indicated only his e-mail or phone number at the online service).
In UBANK, this instantly led to a complete shutdown of the money transfer service to a bank card, even in cases where it is possible by law to do so. For example, no one forbids transferring money from your card linked to your UBANK account. In this case, you as a customer are identified in the bank, which means you don’t seem to be banned.
But for our partner who provided the work of this service, technically there was no difference between the transfer from a virtual account or from a bank card. So I had to chop off everything. Fortunately, we have already managed to restore the main part of the functionality - now it can be transferred from card to card (and this was the most requested service). But anonymous transfers (much less popular) have sunk into oblivion forever.
Questionable - transfers within social networks . We in UBANK pinned great hopes on this topic. They fantasized, experimented, developed new forms of “financial mutual aid” among friends. Our service made it easy to fold as a gift to a general friend. Or, say, without any problems to pay the collective account in the restaurant in which the company sits.
The standard situation: someone with cash, someone has a card, someone with no money at all and promises to pay later to someone who will take it to help out. After you have received a check, you can distribute payments between friends in UBANK, so that they pay off within the system to those who paid for all. We thought over similar scenarios, deduced templates. But all these improvements that make life easier and more enjoyable, the updated law effectively prohibits. Now it is just so impossible.
One of the coolest and most promising financial innovations in the world in Russia suddenly found itself in the red zone. After all, if we take out all the functionalities out of the brackets, the bottom line is the transfer from one impersonal wallet to another, from one unidentified individual to another. And you can no longer do that.
However, we are not going to shout "guard". The law allows you to transfer from your card tied to an account in UBANK to your friend from Facebook to his card registered in the system. We will work on similar mechanics in the near future.
Recently, banks and online services have been actively experimenting with virtual cards. They could start right on the Internet. In a similar way, it was possible to get a non-virtual, but also an anonymous card - as a gift, for example, by mail, or with some kind of purchase. For financial companies, such cards are an interesting marketing tool that allows you to attract additional audiences. After all, in order to start using such a card, people do not need to go somewhere and sign something. A similar project was developed by us in UBANK. But now in the distribution of non-name cards there is a lot less sense . Their functionality is radically limited, since anonymous cards were just as outlawed as virtual wallets.
The law allows an anonymous payment system user to transfer money to repay loans . That is, people who usually on the last day of the month suddenly remember about paying for a mortgage and run to the terminal or transfer money through an online service will not seem to suffer from the law. But there is a nuance: from a technical point of view, for payment services there is no difference between transferring to a card or to an account for repaying a loan - all this is simply transfers to a bank account. Who will be responsible if, instead of repaying the loan, the money goes to a regular account? The user who entered the data? Payment service that sent the money? The bank that accepted such a payment? No one knows the answers yet. And the majority of players in the market have one strategy - to turn off everything at all, so that God forbid something does not break.
Many freelancers used electronic money to get paid for their work. What is changing for them? You can still transfer money from the card to an anonymous wallet, since in this case the payer is identified . So for customers everything is still. As before, you can safely transfer the fee he earned to the artist’s wallet. And while he pays for mobile communications or utilities with electronic money, the freelancer is also in order. But to transfer electronic money to a card and cash out, he will have to go through identification in the system, showing his passport. It is unlikely for people who regularly receive money for their work, it will become a big problem. Many of them have long passed the identification procedure.
And no one knows. We cite the law: “A non-personalized electronic means of payment cannot be used by an individual client who has not passed the simplified identification.” The word “simplified” should not be misleading, since it is not clear from the text of the law what exactly this simplification consists of .
So far it is only clear that you can personalize a payment in one of three ways: either by submitting a document (the same passport or a notarized copy), or by requesting information from government agencies (for example, a pension fund), or by making an electronic signature, if you suddenly have one. . It doesn't sound very simple, does it?
Probably, over time, it will be possible to create something like a single identification center, whose services can be used without leaving your home. This, unfortunately, still adversely affect the conversion and user loyalty. After all, many people sometimes do not want to enter their phone number, and here they will be asked to provide online passport information. And yet this is a no, and the way out.
Another option is also possible: identification through cellular operators, if they are able to verify and confirm that the owner of such a number (SIM) who has entered into an agreement with them, is Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich. True, it is naive to expect that such a service provided by the players of the mobile market will be free.
No need to panic. We expect that the interests of clients will still be remembered and a compromise solution will be found. The law has a lot of white spots that can be filled in the future in the right way - and reduce the number of difficulties for customers. Finally, there is hope - let it go, and a weak one, that tough amendments will be relaxed. And the simplest transfer operations will not turn into a headache for millions of ordinary users.
We at UBANK try to treat any changes pragmatically and proactively. Therefore, we use a forced pause to redo our services, the work of which was forced to be suspended. Many of them have long demanded attention. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining.
People got nervous. The earnings of many of our users came to them in the form of impersonal payments, the money was transferred to e-wallets. How to be now? What changed? What will happen next year? Will the end of the Russian freelancing? These questions are asked not only by single designers or small teams of programmers. We, of course, in the company, after the adoption of the law, also thought: does this mean that UBANK , like other financial services that managed to accustom the audience to payment freedom, will have to take a step back?
it's a question
')
We tried to figure out what happened and how it will affect consumers and us. We will not say that we know the answers to all the questions. Many formulations of the law are not completely clear to lawyers, and no one fully understands how it will be applied. Nevertheless, we decided to share some of our findings.
1. FAREWELL, TRANSFERS TO CARD
The main thing that made the law: he forbade replenishing bank cards and accounts from virtual wallets, if their owner is not identified (that is, if he indicated only his e-mail or phone number at the online service).
In UBANK, this instantly led to a complete shutdown of the money transfer service to a bank card, even in cases where it is possible by law to do so. For example, no one forbids transferring money from your card linked to your UBANK account. In this case, you as a customer are identified in the bank, which means you don’t seem to be banned.
But for our partner who provided the work of this service, technically there was no difference between the transfer from a virtual account or from a bank card. So I had to chop off everything. Fortunately, we have already managed to restore the main part of the functionality - now it can be transferred from card to card (and this was the most requested service). But anonymous transfers (much less popular) have sunk into oblivion forever.
2. DON'T FRIEND YOU TO ME MORE
Questionable - transfers within social networks . We in UBANK pinned great hopes on this topic. They fantasized, experimented, developed new forms of “financial mutual aid” among friends. Our service made it easy to fold as a gift to a general friend. Or, say, without any problems to pay the collective account in the restaurant in which the company sits.
The standard situation: someone with cash, someone has a card, someone with no money at all and promises to pay later to someone who will take it to help out. After you have received a check, you can distribute payments between friends in UBANK, so that they pay off within the system to those who paid for all. We thought over similar scenarios, deduced templates. But all these improvements that make life easier and more enjoyable, the updated law effectively prohibits. Now it is just so impossible.
One of the coolest and most promising financial innovations in the world in Russia suddenly found itself in the red zone. After all, if we take out all the functionalities out of the brackets, the bottom line is the transfer from one impersonal wallet to another, from one unidentified individual to another. And you can no longer do that.
However, we are not going to shout "guard". The law allows you to transfer from your card tied to an account in UBANK to your friend from Facebook to his card registered in the system. We will work on similar mechanics in the near future.
3. “VIRTUALS”, BY THE MEETING
Recently, banks and online services have been actively experimenting with virtual cards. They could start right on the Internet. In a similar way, it was possible to get a non-virtual, but also an anonymous card - as a gift, for example, by mail, or with some kind of purchase. For financial companies, such cards are an interesting marketing tool that allows you to attract additional audiences. After all, in order to start using such a card, people do not need to go somewhere and sign something. A similar project was developed by us in UBANK. But now in the distribution of non-name cards there is a lot less sense . Their functionality is radically limited, since anonymous cards were just as outlawed as virtual wallets.
4. REPAY THE LOAN? NOT TODAY
The law allows an anonymous payment system user to transfer money to repay loans . That is, people who usually on the last day of the month suddenly remember about paying for a mortgage and run to the terminal or transfer money through an online service will not seem to suffer from the law. But there is a nuance: from a technical point of view, for payment services there is no difference between transferring to a card or to an account for repaying a loan - all this is simply transfers to a bank account. Who will be responsible if, instead of repaying the loan, the money goes to a regular account? The user who entered the data? Payment service that sent the money? The bank that accepted such a payment? No one knows the answers yet. And the majority of players in the market have one strategy - to turn off everything at all, so that God forbid something does not break.
5. HOW TO GET A FEE?
Many freelancers used electronic money to get paid for their work. What is changing for them? You can still transfer money from the card to an anonymous wallet, since in this case the payer is identified . So for customers everything is still. As before, you can safely transfer the fee he earned to the artist’s wallet. And while he pays for mobile communications or utilities with electronic money, the freelancer is also in order. But to transfer electronic money to a card and cash out, he will have to go through identification in the system, showing his passport. It is unlikely for people who regularly receive money for their work, it will become a big problem. Many of them have long passed the identification procedure.
6. WHAT IS SIMPLIFIED IDENTIFICATION?
And no one knows. We cite the law: “A non-personalized electronic means of payment cannot be used by an individual client who has not passed the simplified identification.” The word “simplified” should not be misleading, since it is not clear from the text of the law what exactly this simplification consists of .
So far it is only clear that you can personalize a payment in one of three ways: either by submitting a document (the same passport or a notarized copy), or by requesting information from government agencies (for example, a pension fund), or by making an electronic signature, if you suddenly have one. . It doesn't sound very simple, does it?
Probably, over time, it will be possible to create something like a single identification center, whose services can be used without leaving your home. This, unfortunately, still adversely affect the conversion and user loyalty. After all, many people sometimes do not want to enter their phone number, and here they will be asked to provide online passport information. And yet this is a no, and the way out.
Another option is also possible: identification through cellular operators, if they are able to verify and confirm that the owner of such a number (SIM) who has entered into an agreement with them, is Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich. True, it is naive to expect that such a service provided by the players of the mobile market will be free.
7. WITHOUT PANIC!
No need to panic. We expect that the interests of clients will still be remembered and a compromise solution will be found. The law has a lot of white spots that can be filled in the future in the right way - and reduce the number of difficulties for customers. Finally, there is hope - let it go, and a weak one, that tough amendments will be relaxed. And the simplest transfer operations will not turn into a headache for millions of ordinary users.
We at UBANK try to treat any changes pragmatically and proactively. Therefore, we use a forced pause to redo our services, the work of which was forced to be suspended. Many of them have long demanded attention. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/227333/
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