Banks on guard or as Sberbank of Russia blocked indie project accounts
Do you make your game project and periodically pay freelancers?
Do you have a project at such a stage so far that it does not even make sense for you to register a separate legal entity and initiate a separate account?
Have you faced bank transfer problems yet?
Want to know what you may encounter with frequent money transfers to individuals?
If at least one of these questions you answered in the affirmative, then you should read this note.
I am not a programmer, not an artist or a game designer. I can relate myself to that type of socially hated roles in game development, which is often called the “Director.” But besides the fact that I constantly climb into my own business in terms of distributing advice, how and what to do, I am also the person who, in addition to his time, invests in the project and in the team money.
About a year ago I began to gather a group of like-minded people who would be able to implement a mid-level mobile game project. Having collected the offers from the studios that promised to do everything on a turnkey basis and was a bit crazy about the price tag (which, by the way, was tied to the dollar), I decided to take a more creative way and personally selected people for the project. It was important for us that we speak the same language, and also that their final vision of the product coincides with mine.
')
One way or another, the team was formed. Someone was a professional freelancer (i.e., he worked exclusively for himself as orders were received); someone had a main place of work, and took part in the project during his free time; someone just did a one-time job like drawing a logo or website design.
If people invest their time in the project and spend their time on this, then besides offering them a bright idea, I firmly believe that the desire to create must be financially motivated. Since my resources are limited, the size of material incentives was not the same as the giants of the gaming industry can afford. But the matter is not in the amount of compensation, but in the very approach.
Any team that makes a project on its own and attracts freelancers raises the question of how, what and with what money transfer system to pay. As a rule, such a situation rarely happens that all of you are sitting in the same city and can simply meet to transfer cash. Most often, all participants in the process are spread across the country (at best, one by one).
Exactly the same situation with our project, where geography is represented from Khabarovsk to Kiev. But with foreign partners, the situation seems to be clear: it is either electronic money systems or actual transfers (which is better), such as Western Union or the Golden Crown, since they are more efficient and easier for the counterparty to withdraw money through them.
But I didn’t want to strain myself with translations within Russia.
It so happened that in Russia we have one bank that practically monopolized retail.
* Source: RBC. Rating
The table presents data for 2013, but I am more than confident that they have not changed fundamentally. And the leadership of the leader has become even more obvious.
Precomparing the systems of mobile and online banks, as well as relying on personal experience (as I myself am an active user of mobile applications of three Russian banks), I made my choice in favor of Sberbank.
First of all , 80% of freelancers have worked with Sberbank cards with whom I worked. And this means that I can transfer money simply by the phone number that is attached to a bank card.
Secondly , Sberbank's mobile bank is quite convenient and operational.
Thirdly , without confirmation (namely in 1 click), I can send the amounts I need.
For example, using the same service in Alfa Bank, I often need to call the call center and confirm the operation. And in Sberbank, I can perform such operations in the amount of up to 100,000 rubles during the day. When working with freelancers, as you understand, I did not step over this limit.
Therefore, I was very surprised when they called me from the bank so beloved by me.
And here we sawed the project, everything went with its rough edges in terms of the production process: deadlines were broken, concept boards of the playing field were altered, the visual style was changing. In this case, we all work on the remote and keep regular communication via Skype. We have two programmers in our team, a game designer, more than ten artists who periodically change. There is also a composer, a person who helps to make videos and many others are involved in the project on an irregular basis. In general, a fairly standard process of the modern Russian indie gaming project.
One day, I received a phone call, and the girl on the other end of the wire informed me that if I did not submit documents confirming my operations to Sberbank, all my accounts in Sberbank (cards and mobile bank) would be blocked, and I would I can not use it. When I asked what those operations were, which caused doubts and how exactly I should confirm them, I could not get an answer. I asked the girl to introduce herself to know where to look for the ends, but the girl refused to do it. Instead, she consulted with some man about what I say and what not. I heard fragments of phrases, as she apparently didn’t cover the phone well with her hand. In the end, after I told her that I would understand and write a statement, the girl took the phone from the same man, who told me not to interrupt him and bring all the necessary documents to the bank. They say that they received information from the compliance service, that my operations are considered fraudulent, and I received an order to block all my accounts.
The most interesting thing is that nowhere was it indicated what kind of operations I should confirm and for what period.
It so happened that I have a friend in the structure of Sberbank, to whom I told this story and who informed me that the situation smacks of some kind of fraud. As if they wanted to block me, they would block me, but they would not call and not warn that they will do it from tomorrow.
Out of the goodness of my heart, I believed him and did not do anything. And they took me according to the plan and blocked it exactly the next day.
By the way here, so that you understand, I will give a little explanation of what operations were going on my map.
I have a brokerage account where I invested free money in shares of Russian companies. The account was opened more than 7 years ago in the largest Russian broker. Since I started investing in games, I transferred money from him to my Sberbank account. Then I made my daily purchases with this money, and also made transfers to the team members, bought domains, paid for the Unity license, etc.
That's all my operations.
After blocking my accounts, I naturally came to Sberbank and provided them with a statement from a brokerage account, where it is clear that I was the one who was transferring money to myself, and it was I who then spent that money. But the bank employees were not satisfied with such explanations. Moreover, they themselves had no idea what exactly I needed to do in order to be able to unblock me. There was a clear inconsistency between the departments of the bank and the absolute absence of a customer-oriented approach.
After a week I did not get an answer from Sberbank employees, what should I do to resolve the situation, I again contacted my friend inside the bank. Sberbank, by the way, is a huge machine where so many people work, that it would be unlikely that all of them would even fit in the Luzhniki Stadium. So he went to the authorities of those who blocked me, and then he continued to talk with them himself.
But it did not ease my fate. Almost every day during the week I received new requests through my friend. Sberbank wanted to see documentary evidence of all account transactions that I conducted during the six months.
Then I provided them with copies of contracts with each of the team members. This was not enough, and I was asked to provide the source of the money. I sent my 2-NDFL form to Sberbank over the past 3 years, from where it was possible to see how much money I received. This response from the compliance service is also not satisfactory. They asked me to provide extracts from my other bank accounts and statements from the brokerage account for the last 3 years, where it would be visible when and from what sources I replenished the brokerage account. Fortunately, other banks and a brokerage office turned out to be more friendly, and in a short time they prepared for me the corresponding certificates, which I sent to Sberbank.
After a couple of weeks of torment, I still won. But what did they answer me? They told me that they could not unblock my card, but they could only reissue it, because in their internal system I was marked as “fraudster”.
As a result, I realized that the presumption of innocence does not work in our country. Sberbank initially thought that I was guilty of fraudulent transactions and preferred to block me. I had to prove my innocence. As I was later explained, my operations resemble a money-laundering scheme. My question is how can this be like money laundering, if I transferred money to another bank to myself from one bank to a white bank and then transferred money to a white bank to other people, nobody could explain it to me.
The position of Sberbank, whose employees demanded to present all possible documents, without naming exactly which operations need to be confirmed, was explained by the fact that they wanted to unearth everything possible, without themselves knowing where fraud might be there. Moreover, the lack of professionalism of the staff and client managers with whom I came across, suggests that they by and large do not care about their clients. And if I hadn’t had a friend in the structure of the bank, they wouldn’t even get in touch with me, but I would have remained in the status of a “fraudster” and would not be able to open accounts and cards in Sberbank anymore.
Therefore, if you make your projects with the involvement of freelancers, and often perform card transactions, be prepared for the fact that at any moment you may be demanded of all the secrets of your income and the reasons for transferring funds to others. Even if you are doing a project for yourself.
For me, this game project is purely expenses that I bear. Therefore, such close attention of bank employees was a revelation to me. Why, then, do such functions in a mobile bank as transferring money between bank customers in 1 click, if it is impossible to use it normally?
What I once taught this life experience.
I hope the article will be useful to you, and if you decide to use such schemes. Think in advance what documents you should overlap.
Big Brother is watching you.
Do you have a project at such a stage so far that it does not even make sense for you to register a separate legal entity and initiate a separate account?
Have you faced bank transfer problems yet?
Want to know what you may encounter with frequent money transfers to individuals?
If at least one of these questions you answered in the affirmative, then you should read this note.
Instead of introducing
I am not a programmer, not an artist or a game designer. I can relate myself to that type of socially hated roles in game development, which is often called the “Director.” But besides the fact that I constantly climb into my own business in terms of distributing advice, how and what to do, I am also the person who, in addition to his time, invests in the project and in the team money.
About a year ago I began to gather a group of like-minded people who would be able to implement a mid-level mobile game project. Having collected the offers from the studios that promised to do everything on a turnkey basis and was a bit crazy about the price tag (which, by the way, was tied to the dollar), I decided to take a more creative way and personally selected people for the project. It was important for us that we speak the same language, and also that their final vision of the product coincides with mine.
')
One way or another, the team was formed. Someone was a professional freelancer (i.e., he worked exclusively for himself as orders were received); someone had a main place of work, and took part in the project during his free time; someone just did a one-time job like drawing a logo or website design.
Any labor must be paid.
If people invest their time in the project and spend their time on this, then besides offering them a bright idea, I firmly believe that the desire to create must be financially motivated. Since my resources are limited, the size of material incentives was not the same as the giants of the gaming industry can afford. But the matter is not in the amount of compensation, but in the very approach.
Any team that makes a project on its own and attracts freelancers raises the question of how, what and with what money transfer system to pay. As a rule, such a situation rarely happens that all of you are sitting in the same city and can simply meet to transfer cash. Most often, all participants in the process are spread across the country (at best, one by one).
Exactly the same situation with our project, where geography is represented from Khabarovsk to Kiev. But with foreign partners, the situation seems to be clear: it is either electronic money systems or actual transfers (which is better), such as Western Union or the Golden Crown, since they are more efficient and easier for the counterparty to withdraw money through them.
But I didn’t want to strain myself with translations within Russia.
It so happened that in Russia we have one bank that practically monopolized retail.
* Source: RBC. Rating
The table presents data for 2013, but I am more than confident that they have not changed fundamentally. And the leadership of the leader has become even more obvious.
Precomparing the systems of mobile and online banks, as well as relying on personal experience (as I myself am an active user of mobile applications of three Russian banks), I made my choice in favor of Sberbank.
First of all , 80% of freelancers have worked with Sberbank cards with whom I worked. And this means that I can transfer money simply by the phone number that is attached to a bank card.
Secondly , Sberbank's mobile bank is quite convenient and operational.
Thirdly , without confirmation (namely in 1 click), I can send the amounts I need.
For example, using the same service in Alfa Bank, I often need to call the call center and confirm the operation. And in Sberbank, I can perform such operations in the amount of up to 100,000 rubles during the day. When working with freelancers, as you understand, I did not step over this limit.
Therefore, I was very surprised when they called me from the bank so beloved by me.
And in all this, I cover you
And here we sawed the project, everything went with its rough edges in terms of the production process: deadlines were broken, concept boards of the playing field were altered, the visual style was changing. In this case, we all work on the remote and keep regular communication via Skype. We have two programmers in our team, a game designer, more than ten artists who periodically change. There is also a composer, a person who helps to make videos and many others are involved in the project on an irregular basis. In general, a fairly standard process of the modern Russian indie gaming project.
One day, I received a phone call, and the girl on the other end of the wire informed me that if I did not submit documents confirming my operations to Sberbank, all my accounts in Sberbank (cards and mobile bank) would be blocked, and I would I can not use it. When I asked what those operations were, which caused doubts and how exactly I should confirm them, I could not get an answer. I asked the girl to introduce herself to know where to look for the ends, but the girl refused to do it. Instead, she consulted with some man about what I say and what not. I heard fragments of phrases, as she apparently didn’t cover the phone well with her hand. In the end, after I told her that I would understand and write a statement, the girl took the phone from the same man, who told me not to interrupt him and bring all the necessary documents to the bank. They say that they received information from the compliance service, that my operations are considered fraudulent, and I received an order to block all my accounts.
The most interesting thing is that nowhere was it indicated what kind of operations I should confirm and for what period.
It so happened that I have a friend in the structure of Sberbank, to whom I told this story and who informed me that the situation smacks of some kind of fraud. As if they wanted to block me, they would block me, but they would not call and not warn that they will do it from tomorrow.
Out of the goodness of my heart, I believed him and did not do anything. And they took me according to the plan and blocked it exactly the next day.
By the way here, so that you understand, I will give a little explanation of what operations were going on my map.
I have a brokerage account where I invested free money in shares of Russian companies. The account was opened more than 7 years ago in the largest Russian broker. Since I started investing in games, I transferred money from him to my Sberbank account. Then I made my daily purchases with this money, and also made transfers to the team members, bought domains, paid for the Unity license, etc.
That's all my operations.
After blocking my accounts, I naturally came to Sberbank and provided them with a statement from a brokerage account, where it is clear that I was the one who was transferring money to myself, and it was I who then spent that money. But the bank employees were not satisfied with such explanations. Moreover, they themselves had no idea what exactly I needed to do in order to be able to unblock me. There was a clear inconsistency between the departments of the bank and the absolute absence of a customer-oriented approach.
After a week I did not get an answer from Sberbank employees, what should I do to resolve the situation, I again contacted my friend inside the bank. Sberbank, by the way, is a huge machine where so many people work, that it would be unlikely that all of them would even fit in the Luzhniki Stadium. So he went to the authorities of those who blocked me, and then he continued to talk with them himself.
But it did not ease my fate. Almost every day during the week I received new requests through my friend. Sberbank wanted to see documentary evidence of all account transactions that I conducted during the six months.
Then I provided them with copies of contracts with each of the team members. This was not enough, and I was asked to provide the source of the money. I sent my 2-NDFL form to Sberbank over the past 3 years, from where it was possible to see how much money I received. This response from the compliance service is also not satisfactory. They asked me to provide extracts from my other bank accounts and statements from the brokerage account for the last 3 years, where it would be visible when and from what sources I replenished the brokerage account. Fortunately, other banks and a brokerage office turned out to be more friendly, and in a short time they prepared for me the corresponding certificates, which I sent to Sberbank.
After a couple of weeks of torment, I still won. But what did they answer me? They told me that they could not unblock my card, but they could only reissue it, because in their internal system I was marked as “fraudster”.
As a result, I realized that the presumption of innocence does not work in our country. Sberbank initially thought that I was guilty of fraudulent transactions and preferred to block me. I had to prove my innocence. As I was later explained, my operations resemble a money-laundering scheme. My question is how can this be like money laundering, if I transferred money to another bank to myself from one bank to a white bank and then transferred money to a white bank to other people, nobody could explain it to me.
The position of Sberbank, whose employees demanded to present all possible documents, without naming exactly which operations need to be confirmed, was explained by the fact that they wanted to unearth everything possible, without themselves knowing where fraud might be there. Moreover, the lack of professionalism of the staff and client managers with whom I came across, suggests that they by and large do not care about their clients. And if I hadn’t had a friend in the structure of the bank, they wouldn’t even get in touch with me, but I would have remained in the status of a “fraudster” and would not be able to open accounts and cards in Sberbank anymore.
Therefore, if you make your projects with the involvement of freelancers, and often perform card transactions, be prepared for the fact that at any moment you may be demanded of all the secrets of your income and the reasons for transferring funds to others. Even if you are doing a project for yourself.
For me, this game project is purely expenses that I bear. Therefore, such close attention of bank employees was a revelation to me. Why, then, do such functions in a mobile bank as transferring money between bank customers in 1 click, if it is impossible to use it normally?
Finally
What I once taught this life experience.
- Even if you are doing a project for yourself and do not put it on wide commercial rails, take care of the transparency of your finances and documentation as much as possible.
- Always keep spare reserves in another bank (preferably without a controlling shareholder represented by the state). This will help you avoid a situation where your personal money for food, payment for an apartment, etc. may be blocked.
- Keep a history of all your payments. Keep a simple expense register. Then it will greatly facilitate your search for the ends.
- Do not be afraid to prove your case to such financial institutions as Sberbank. Everywhere people work, and it is people who are the cause of the inefficiency of organizations.
I hope the article will be useful to you, and if you decide to use such schemes. Think in advance what documents you should overlap.
Big Brother is watching you.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/289400/
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