On 3 June 2009, the President signed Federal Law No. 103-FZ "On the Acceptance of Payments from Individuals by Payment Agents." The Law will enter into force on 1 January 2010.

The Law establishes a legal framework for the activities of payment agents accepting payments from individuals.

Under the Law, any legal entities or individual entrepreneurs can act as payment agents (the Law does not establish any specific requirements for them, such as licensing, other than registration for anti-money laundering purposes (see below)). Payment agents accept cash funds from individuals as payment for goods, works or services (including community charges) to be further transferred to the supplier of such goods, works or services. The agents may charge service fees to payers. Monetary obligations of a payer against a supplier are deemed discharged on the transfer of funds to a payment agent.

Payment agents must have an agreement with a supplier to accept payments for it. They may also engage sub-agents if this opportunity is provided under the agreement. Payment agents must use cash registers to accept funds and issue receipts to payers. They may also accept payments through payment terminals. In this case, cash registers must be built into the payment terminals.

Payment agents are required to register with an authorised body for anti-money laundering purposes and have their internal control rules approved before accepting payments. They are also required to identify payers in cases provided by the anti-money laundering rules. Notably, if identification of a payer is required, payment agents can not accept payments through payment terminals or sub-agents.

Compliance with the Law will be monitored by federal executive bodies to be specified by the Government. In addition, compliance with the Law by sub-agents will be monitored by the payment agents who engaged them.

On 3 June 2009, the President signed Federal Law No. 121-FZ amending certain legislative acts, including the Law on Banks and Banking Activities and the Anti-Money Laundering Law, following the adoption of the Law on Payment Agents. This Law enters into force on 1 January 2010, except for the amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law, which enter into force 180 days after the date of its official publication.

The amendments introduce specific regulations for banking payment agents. According to the amendments, credit organisations may engage non-credit organisations or individual entrepreneurs (banking payment agents) for any of the following:

Banking payment agents must have an agreement with a credit organisation to accept payments. They may not engage sub-agents. They may accept payments through payment terminals (for cash payments) or automated teller machines (ATMs) (for cash and cashless payments). In this case cash registers must be built into the payment terminals and ATMs.

Banking payment agents are required to identify payers in cases provided by the anti-money laundering rules.

Compliance of banking payment agents with the rules for accepting payments and anti-money laundering rules will be monitored by the credit organisations which engaged them.

According to the amendments, identification of individuals is not required when accepting payments from them that do not exceed RUB15,000 or its equivalent in foreign currency (about US$480), unless there are grounds to suspect that the operation is made for money laundering purposes.

The amendments also develop the Anti-Money Laundering Law rules which require that certain information on a payer (either an individual or a legal entity) be indicated in payment documents and further accurately transferred on all the stages of a payment operation.

In particular, a credit organisation conducting cashless payments on instruction of a payer must ensure that payment documents contain certain details on the payer. It must refuse to conduct a payment operation if the required details are absent. A credit organisation servicing a payee must possess internal procedures allowing it to detect payment documents that do not contain the required details; it must inform an authorised anti-money laundering body (currently, the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring) of the payment operation if it suspects that the operation is made for money laundering purposes. Similar rules are set for credit organisations making transfers without opening a bank account and post offices conducting postal transfers.

The above rules do not apply, among others, to:

The Anti-Money Laundering Law rules seeking to ensure closer control of foreign public officials' operations were amended, in particular, to allow a chief of a credit organisation's branch (in addition to a chief of a credit organisation) to decide on the provision of services to a foreign public official.

Amendments to the Law on Cash Registers define payment terminals and ATMs and specify requirements for cash registers to be built into them. They also suggest that terminals and ATMs owned by a credit organisation do not need to have cash registers built into them.

Amendments to the Administrative Offences Code provide for the administrative liability for non-use of cash registers as required by law or their improper use, which will apply, among others, to payment agents and banking payment agents.