OREANDA-NEWS Russians in January will be able to transfer money to the client's account of almost any large Bank without entering his card number - it will be enough to know the mobile phone number of the recipient of funds. This was made possible by the Bank of Russia's fast payment system.

The industrial launch of the system is scheduled for January. 12 banks took part in its testing, at the beginning of 2019 another 20 should join, the head of the National payment card system Vladimir Komlev told reporters.

CBR has no plans to make participation in the system mandatory, said in October, the first Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova. Banks will decide whether they want to join it. Sberbank has not yet joined the Central Bank system. The largest Russian Bank is developing its platform for transfers by phone number, it has already connected "Tinkoff Bank" and SovComBank.

At the end of November, the CBR set tariffs for banks in the system of fast payments at the level of 1 to 6 rubles, depending on the amount of transfer. At the same time in 2019 the fee will not be charged. The regulator expects a significant reduction in commissions for the population. As of the end of December, the largest banks surveyed did not say what tariffs they would set for customers, but it is expected that they will be lower than the current tariffs for transfer from card to card.

In the future, it will be possible to transfer money not only by mobile phone number, but also by e-mail address. In addition, it will be possible to make payments to state bodies and legal entities.

The Bank of Russia will become the operator of the fast payment system and its settlement center. The national payment card system was chosen as the operational payment clearing center of the system.