OREANDA-NEWS. October 18, 2011. Yandex.Money has agreed to partner with Equifaх, the largest consumer credit reporting agency working in Russia. Now, those Yandex.Money users who have ever taken a loan from a bank can have their Yandex.Money identification confirmed online, without having to come to the company’s office. Yandex.Money is the first e-payment system in Russia to enable online authentication via a credit reporting agency.

Equifax holds credit files on customers of most Russian banks. The remote authentication in Yandex.Money is based on Equifax’s obtaining answers to a number of questions from the system’s user. Remote authentication only takes 10-15 minutes and is considered successful if the information obtained from the system’s user matches the information already available to Equifax. Yandex.Money does not have access to the client’s credit history; it is Equifax who checks the client’s credit reputation.

Authentication in Yandex.Money is a procedure that identifies a client as the owner of a specific e-payment account. Authentication in the system gives its clients a wider range of opportunities including an option to make payments over 15,000 rubles* and lower cash withdrawal and fund transfer limits.

“This project is unique both for Russia and for the whole world. This is the first experience of partnership between a credit reporting agency and an e-payment system. And this is an absolutely new direction in our industry,” says Oleg Lagutkin, the CEO of Equifax Credit Services LCC.

“That’s what an e-money service is for – to be used online, without leaving home. And, of course, it is in our interest to provide our clients with an opportunity to perform all operations, including authentication, online,” says Natalia Khaitina, Deputy CEO of Yandex.Money. “Currently, the Yandex.Money’s Equifax-powered online authentication is available to clients with a credit history, but we will try and extend this opportunity to other clients, too.”