In Russia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will officially “sell” information about citizens to banks and telecom operators

The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has proposed establishing a fee for providing organizations, including banks, with information about citizens available in the police database, Interfax reports. The corresponding draft document is posted on the official portal of draft regulatory legal acts.

Data on the validity of a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, as well as registration at the place of residence and place of stay will be officially transmitted to banks, telecom operators, accredited certification centers (they create and issue certificates of electronic signatures), insurers, credit history bureaus, depositories, non-state pension funds and other organizations carrying out transactions with funds and other property.

Information will be transmitted through a unified system of interdepartmental electronic interaction (SMEI), to which more than 500 organizations are already connected. It is proposed to set the cost of one request at 50 rubles. The explanatory note to the document states that in 2024-2025 the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation received 2.4 billion such requests.

“Taking into account the introduction of a fee established by the draft standards for the provision of information contained in police data banks, the projected revenues to the federal budget for the calendar year are expected to amount to 119.6 billion rubles,” says the explanatory note to the document.

The funds are planned to be used to financially support the activities of internal affairs bodies. The regulation is expected to come into force on September 1, 2026 and will remain in effect for six years.