Alfa-Bank - unconfirmed transactions: what it means, reasons for occurrence, actions of the cardholder

In some cases, you have to deal with situations where the bank does not process payment for goods or services. Such a transaction receives the status “Unconfirmed”, i.e. It will not be possible to withdraw funds for the required amount from the account. This is because they are blocked. The transaction is carried out as a result of its confirmation by the credit institution. At Alfa Bank, such cases arise if clients carry out actions through the Alfa-Click Internet bank. They also occur when the client pays with a card in shopping centers.

The concept of an unconfirmed operation

The mark about the unconfirmed operation is saved until the files are processed.
This is the name for payments and transfers blocked by a credit institution. This happens before receiving materials confirming the operation. The amount is indicated in the materials provided by online banking. The system also provides a complete description of the action.

The amount includes the cost of all transactions made by the client. However, the credit institution does not receive documents confirming the transactions.

This means that funds are not written off, but reserved. The unconfirmed operation flag is retained until the files are processed.

What to do if there are such transactions?

Well, you have learned what unconfirmed transactions of Alfa-Bank are, but what to do if you find them in online banking or in a mobile application, or maybe in a check? The fact is that the presence of such transactions does not oblige you to anything; you can withdraw money for the amount of these payments and, therefore, you will not be able to put the card in the negative. Therefore, you don’t need to do anything, wait a little and these transactions will disappear. If you wish, you can call the Alfa-Bank hotline and find out when the transaction will be closed.

What the process looks like

To understand how the payment procedure is performed, you need to consider its algorithm using an example:

The amount of 5000 rubles is stored in the client’s account. The owner of the means of payment pays for a purchase worth 2000 rubles.
The person places the card on the terminal screen and enters the PIN code. The device submits a request to the bank, requiring confirmation. The system must find out whether the client’s account has the required amount and whether a card with the specified details exists.
The lending institution gives approval. Funds are debited from the account. When activating the SMS banking service, the client receives a message about the completion of the payment. The notification contains information about the amount remaining in the account. In the example under consideration, this is 3,000 rubles.

The procedure does not end there. The actual debiting of money is carried out after the owner of the terminal sends clearing files to the bank. All actions are completed quickly, so clients rarely encounter unconfirmed transactions.

Unconfirmed transactions are rare at Alfa Bank.

What is HOLD at Alfa-Bank

If a “HOLD” notification occurs in relation to a card, for Alfa-Bank clients this means the creation of a temporary reserve on the card account, when the amount of a future debit is frozen pending confirmation by the bank.

Attention. The credit institution sets an internal standard within which the request must be verified and confirmed. The write-off will occur later when special files are processed.

Next steps for the credit card holder

When receiving information about the presence of unconfirmed transactions, there is no need to worry. It is recommended to wait a few days first. After 2–3 days, the transaction status may change.

Sometimes the time required to debit money and complete the transaction may increase.

To avoid an unplanned increase in the amount of debt or the occurrence of a technical overdraft, it is recommended to refrain from making large purchases.

The grace period for a card loan starts from the date the money is written off. If there are unconfirmed transactions, updating the grace period becomes impossible.

Following actions

You need to be careful about transactions that are carried out in different currencies. Experts explain that different actions with the currency in the account leads to blocking of one amount. In this case, the other one is written off. This occurs as a result of currency conversion. The dates vary. The operation takes from a few seconds to three days. This is determined by the type of action required.

Experts explain that if a check contains unconfirmed transactions, then no action should be taken. In this case, you need to wait. The cardholder has no obligations with this operation.

Helpful tips for successful financial transactions

Unconfirmed transactions occur due to circumstances beyond the control of the cardholder.

The following recommendations can help reduce the likelihood of errors:

The hold period does not last long. The status may change before the money is debited, which may result in an overdraft. The client is advised to monitor the balance. The amount reserved must be taken into account.
You cannot change your card account if there are unconfirmed transactions. Write-offs are carried out from both the old and new balance.
If the currency of payment and invoice are different, a larger amount may be frozen. Once confirmation is received, a smaller amount of money is debited.

What to do if payment has not been sent within 5 days

If, after the expiration of the established maximum period, the status “In Processing” does not change, you must contact an Alfa-Bank branch or call the hotline with this problem.

Why might there be a hitch?

Delays in bank transfers can occur for a number of reasons:

Bank rules . In some financial institutions, the transfer can take up to several days.
Non-working hours, holidays and weekends . Some banking institutions conduct transactions only during business hours.
Incorrect completion of the transfer application . If the recipient's details are incorrectly specified, the money may either freeze in the system or go to another person.

If a client completes a transaction late or on a holiday, then his application will have the “Processing” status for some time.

Recommendations for successful payments

To avoid problems when transferring funds, you need to follow a number of recommendations:

study the bank’s transfer rules and work schedule before making transactions;
check the entered data before submitting the application;
make transfers in advance if the money needs to be received by a previously agreed time.

[THERE IS AN ANSWER] From what age does Alfa Bank give a loan?

At the beginning of 2022, the Central Bank (CB) launched the “Fast Payment System” (FPS), which allows transfers to be made in a short time between banks using a telephone number. Almost all banks in Russia are connected to this system, including such large financial organizations as VTB, Sberbank, Tinkoff, Otkritie, Alfa-Bank and others.

To make transactions using SBP, you need to connect one of your accounts to this system. This can be done at a bank branch or in your personal account.

It is recommended to study the rules of bank transfers before making transactions.

Loan term – 1 year.
Security – collateral and guarantees.
Provided in the form of tranches, the number of which is unlimited.
The minimum tranche size is from 1 million 500 thousand rubles. for periods up to 6 months.

Possibility to chargeback an unconfirmed payment

If you transfer money to the wrong account, the transaction can be reversed. This action is called chargeback.

It is performed when:

erroneous sending of money;
suspicion of transferring funds to fraudsters;
receiving a defective product ordered from an online store;
transfer of funds to a non-existent company.

To withdraw a payment, contact the bank, presenting evidence of your innocence: pay slips, checks, screenshots of correspondence. If the bank makes a positive decision, the money is returned to the balance sheet.

Advantages of the Bank Cabinet website

Not all resources on the Internet that contain instructions are reliable. This trend is not surprising, because financial companies are constantly developing, adding innovations, improving and finalizing the system. All changes must be systematically checked and analyzed. Bank Cabinet has the following positive aspects, which are rarely found:

Fresh and verified information.
All instructions are written by authors who are themselves bank clients.
24/7 support for site guests.
The user does not have to look for information from different sources - Bank Account contains it in a concise and understandable form.
Systematic checking of user comments and requests.
Making timely changes if the bank changes the registration rules.

Purposes of spot transactions

According to statistics, conversion transactions in cash and non-cash form account for up to 40% of the total trading volume of the foreign exchange market.

The intended purpose of such transactions should be:

implementation of the tasks of clients of banking organizations to transform funds;
increasing liquidity, for which financial companies exchange currencies, bringing their own money into the process;
execution of spot transactions aimed at making a profit as a result of the existing difference in the purchase and sale prices;
liquidation of account balances;
eliminating the redundancy of one type of banknotes and making up for the lack of others.

What does it mean that a loan is repaid at the expense of the reserve?

Therefore, after writing off the loan, it becomes necessary to pay income tax. Banks report to the tax authorities for income and losses received. And the written-off loan will be considered profit for the borrower in the reporting.

It is worth noting that income tax today is 13% of the amount of profit. They even take it from your salary. So you have to prepare such a share of the outstanding loan. A bank's use of its reserves to pay off bad and doubtful loans is often not disclosed. And such information becomes known only during the trial. Such actions on the part of the bank can be called illegal with signs of fraud. Because there are many types of deception on the Internet. And they can simply steal money from you using such a move. Commercial banks must have a reserve - funds that are stored in a correspondent account with the central bank.

What are banks guided by?

The bank does not intend to prove the fact of money laundering by its clients. However, banks are bound by a large number of legal and banking regulatory requirements. In particular, banks are entrusted with the function of exercising control based on an assessment of the risk level of clients, including identifying transactions in respect of which there are suspicions that their purpose is money laundering or terrorist financing, informing Rosfinmonitoring about these transactions, and taking measures against them. suppression.

Ideally, the bank should be interested in removing such suspicions at its own level. Therefore, regarding suspicious transactions, the bank generates a request to the client, hoping that based on the results of the analysis of the supporting documents submitted by the client and a more detailed study of the “client’s portrait”, suspicions will be removed. This is also due to the fact that the bank is interested in not being involved in dubious transactions, which may have consequences for the bank itself on the part of the regulator.

In reality, there are often cases when banks, by their own actions (without a court decision and outside the scope of the activities of law enforcement or tax authorities), can easily paralyze a business (especially a small one), which, in the absence of the possibility of settlements with counterparties, often ceases to exist altogether. Existing regulation in the field of banking and AML/CFT and the formal approach to its implementation sometimes lead to precisely these consequences.

In this regard, there is an obvious need to amend the relevant laws and acts of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which would ensure a balance between respecting the interests of clients and the requirements of anti-money laundering legislation, would limit the discretion of banks when deciding on refusal to carry out transactions or refusal of service, and would speed up the appeal procedure such decisions, etc. Despite the existing instructions to the Government of the Russian Federation to prepare amendments to the legislation designed to eliminate unfounded refusals of transactions and blocking of accounts, this issue is still not resolved.

Spot Market and its participants

When figuring out what the conversion banking market means, it is important to remember that different categories of entities may be involved in them:

Central Bank. Its direct task is the management of state reserves (banknotes), as well as participation in the development and implementation of monetary policy. It also has a significant impact on the conditions for executing financial transactions. The Central Bank sets the exchange rate of the national currency to the foreign currency, deliberately regulating quotes through foreign exchange interventions.
The Ministry of Finance, acting on behalf of the state. Carries out adjustments to exchange rate dynamics. Although it is believed that market relationships between counterparties are based on a balance between supply and demand, it is very reckless to underestimate the degree of government influence in this direction.
Commercial banking organizations. In essence, they are dedicated platforms on which individuals and legal entities purchase and sell currencies. It is these companies that provide clients with the opportunity to make financial transactions. The vast majority of foreign exchange transactions are carried out through them.
Exchange. Another platform that allows you to buy or sell banknotes from different countries, as well as move securities. Only accredited organizations (legal entities) operate on it.
Brokerage firms. They perform an intermediary function between the exchange market and the person interested in concluding an agreement (his role can be either a legal entity or an individual). Brokers are banks and other institutions accredited by the marketplace.
Foreign trade enterprises (foreign trade). Engaged in solving import/export problems. They have their own current account in foreign currency, through which they carry out the conversion.
Individuals. Also has the right to take part in such transactions. As a rule, the category is represented by private entrepreneurs doing business with companies registered abroad.

What can a bank do if it detects signs of questionable transactions?

The gradation of restrictive measures that a bank can apply, guided by Law No. 115-FZ and the bank’s internal rules, is as follows:

restricting the use of remote banking services or card payments;
suspension of the operation (that is, the bank’s failure to fulfill the client’s order for up to 5 business days);
refusal to execute a client’s order to perform a specific transaction (clause 11 of Article 7 of Law No. 115-FZ);
(for potential clients) refusal to conclude a bank account agreement (clause 5.2 of Article 7 of Law No. 115-FZ);
blocking (freezing) of funds (that is, a ban on account transactions provided for by Law No. 115-FZ).

First of all, the bank can request documents and information from the client (for example, about the transaction being carried out, the source of funds, about counterparties, the reality of doing business, etc.), and use other sources of information. If the previously provided information turned out to be insufficient, the bank has the right to request additional information .

Banks, in accordance with internal documents and the terms of concluded agreements, independently determine the list and composition of the requested documents and information, the timing of their submission and consideration in different situations (selective or constant verification of all clients). This is a standard procedure for any bank in relation to any of its clients as part of its financial monitoring responsibilities. In addition, the bank may invite the client to a work meeting to receive oral explanations.

Based on the results of the analysis of the information received, the bank can:

make a decision to refuse the operation and send a corresponding message to Rosfinmonitoring; or
make a decision to classify the operation as “suspicious” and/or “subject to mandatory control” and send a corresponding message to Rosfinmonitoring , but carry out the operation ; or
make a decision to review the degree (level) of the client’s risk.

If the bank has assigned an increased risk level to a specific client, the bank has the right to:

restrict (limit) for such a client the use of Internet banking (RB) and the use of bank cards;
carry out enhanced financial monitoring in relation to such a client, including requesting documents and information on each transaction performed.

As for the restriction on the use of RBS, it may not be related to the bank’s decision on the grounds provided for by Law No. 115-FZ (recognizing customer transactions as suspicious/doubtful). Formally, disabling RBS is not a refusal to carry out operations, but is only a restriction on the method of performing operations, which of course does not detract from its negative effect.

At the same time, banks often apply restrictions on the use of RBS without requiring any documents and/or information from the client, as well as without explaining to the client the legal consequences of the restrictions applied, in particular, the differences between such restrictions and refusal to perform a transaction. Unfortunately, such measures of influence today are of a systemic nature, which is recognized by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation itself (see Methodological recommendations of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation dated February 22, 2019 No. 5-MR).

If the client does not submit the documents requested by the bank within the deadline set by him or does not submit all the documents, the bank has the right to refuse to carry out the operation and is obliged to send information about this to Rosfinmonitoring. In this case, it is recommended to submit previously requested or missing documents/information to the bank as soon as possible. Only then will the bank have the right to make a decision to eliminate the grounds for refusing to carry out the operation and inform Rosfinmonitoring about this, which will send the relevant information to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, in turn, will bring the received information to the attention of all credit institutions.

If, in relation to a non-performed transaction, the client submitted all the documents requested by the bank (or the bank did not request documents), but the operation was never carried out, the reasons for the refusal as soon as possible , namely, send an application to the bank to provide information about the reasons that served as the basis to refuse the operation. This client right follows from paragraph 13.4 of Article 7 of Law No. 115-FZ. It should be borne in mind that the bank is not obliged to send the client information about the refusal to carry out a transaction on its own initiative, unless a corresponding request has been received from the client.

Having received information about the reasons for the refusal, the client has the right to submit to the bank documents and (or) information about the absence of grounds for refusal to carry out the operation. The bank, having reviewed such documents/information no later than 10 working days, is obliged to inform the client either that the grounds for refusal have been eliminated or that it is impossible to eliminate them .

According to the Methodological Recommendations of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation dated February 22, 2019 No. 5-MR, the bank must provide the client with information in a volume sufficient for the client to exercise his right to rehabilitation. It is important that the bank’s response about the “impossibility of eliminating the grounds” for refusing to carry out a transaction is sent to the client in writing (including through RBS).

Confirmation difficulties

Quite often there are cases when the bank does not receive confirmation from the client about questionable transactions within the allotted time for several reasons, says Alexey Sizov, head of the anti-fraud department of the Center for Applied Security Systems. Firstly, the client may be abroad, in a hard-to-reach area and simply not be able to answer the bank’s call. Secondly, targeted attacks on large clients may be accompanied by actions that prevent such communication between the client and the bank: from redirection to deliberate calls from an attacker under the guise of an employee of a credit institution, so that the client perceives the call from a real security service as fraudulent.”

Some users can quickly recognize a scam, but sometimes it takes several weeks, notes leading Kaspersky Lab expert Sergey Golovanov. In addition, now clients are very suspicious of phone calls from banks, so they can even reject a real call, adds Sergei Nikitin, deputy head of the Group-IB Computer Forensics Laboratory.

What operations are subject to mandatory control?

These are transactions in an amount equal to or exceeding 600,000 rubles . or the equivalent in foreign currency, and related to one of the following types of transactions (the most relevant for legal entities are given below):

withdrawal from an account or crediting to the account of a legal entity of funds in cash in cases where this is not due to the nature of its economic activity ;
crediting/transferring funds to an account, providing/receiving a credit (loan), transactions with securities, if at least one of the parties is a resident of a state that does not comply with FATF recommendations , or if these operations are carried out through a bank registered in such a state. Currently, such states include Iran and the DPRK (Order of Rosfinmonitoring dated November 10, 2011 No. 361);
crediting/debiting funds to/from the account of a legal entity, the period of activity of which does not exceed 3 months from the date of its registration, or crediting/debiting funds to/from the account of a legal entity, if transactions on the specified account have not been carried out since the moment of its opening ;
receipt or provision of property under a financial lease (leasing) agreement;
provision by legal entities that are not credit institutions of interest-free loans to individuals and (or) other legal entities, as well as receipt of such a loan.

A complete list of transactions subject to mandatory control is given in Part 1 of Article 6 of Law 115-FZ.

Operations subject to mandatory control are not prohibited . However, they are subject to control by the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring) based on the information provided by the bank. The bank is obliged to document and submit to Rosfinmonitoring no later than 3 business days following the day of the transaction, information about the client’s operations that are subject to mandatory control (the list of such information is subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of Article 7 of Law 115-FZ).

What transactions are considered “questionable”?

Questionable transactions are transactions carried out by clients of credit institutions that are of an unusual nature and indicate a lack of clear economic meaning and obvious legitimate purposes, which can be carried out to withdraw capital from the country, finance “gray” imports, transfer funds from non-cash to cash and subsequent tax evasion, as well as for financial support of corruption and other illegal purposes (see Appendix to the letter of the Bank of Russia dated September 4, 2013 No. 172-T).

“Dubious transactions” is an extremely broad concept. The main (general) sign of questionable transactions is the “unusual” nature of the transaction. In banking practice, there are about two hundred signs of unusual transactions.

Signs indicating the unusual nature of the transaction can be found in the appendix to the Regulations on the requirements for the rules of internal control of a credit organization in order to combat the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism" (approved by the Bank of Russia on March 2, 2012 No. 375-P ), as well as in the Order of Rosfinmonitoring dated 05/08/2009 No. 103.

General signs include , in particular:

the transaction is confusing or unusual in nature and has no obvious economic meaning or obvious legal purpose;
inconsistency of the transaction with the goals of the organization’s activities established by its constituent documents;
refusal of the client (client's representative) to provide the documents and information requested by the credit institution, which are necessary to comply with the requirements of legislation in the field of combating money laundering / countering the financing of terrorism;
excessive concern of the client (client's representative) with issues of confidentiality in relation to the ongoing operation (transaction), including disclosure of information to government agencies;
the presence of non-standard or unusually complex settlement instructions that differ from the usual practice used by the client (the client's representative) or from normal market practice;
unreasonable haste in carrying out an operation that the client (client’s representative) insists on;
introduction by the client (client's representative) to the previously agreed scheme of the operation (transaction) immediately before the start of its implementation, significant changes, especially regarding the direction of movement of funds or other property;
difficulties encountered by a credit institution when verifying information provided by a client, unjustified delays in the provision of documents and information by a client, provision by a client of information that cannot be verified;
carrying out transactions using remote service systems, if there is a suspicion that such systems are used by a third party, and not by the client himself (the client’s representative);
carrying out an operation (transaction) in the interests of a client whose period of activity from the date of state registration does not exceed three months, while the client has an insignificant amount of authorized capital compared to the amount of the operation (transaction) that he intends to perform, etc.

For certain types of transactions (for example, cash transactions, credit/loan transactions, international payments, bank card payments), there are a number of special signs indicating the possible laundering of criminal proceeds.

It should be taken into account that when characterizing the client, as well as when describing signs indicating the unusual nature of the transaction, such evaluation categories as “systematicity”, “significance”, “excessive concern of the client”, “unreasonable haste”, “unjustified delays”, “ short period” and the like, are determined by the credit institution in each specific situation independently based on the scale and main areas of its activities, the nature, scale and main areas of activity of its clients, the level of risks associated with clients and their operations.

Thus, within the framework of existing regulation, banks have a very wide margin for their own discretion in assessing the “dubiousness” or “suspiciousness” of transactions entrusted by the client, as well as when deciding whether to accept a potential client for service.

International signs of suspicious clients, transactions and accounts

Since 2003, Russia has been a member of the international group developing measures to combat money laundering (FATF). In 2022, a global assessment of our system for combating financial crimes by our foreign partners began.

In this regard, banks have to take a closer look at their clients.

The Central Bank has published recommendations from 13 global credit institutions on assessing the risks of money laundering, sanctions, bribery and corruption.

Worthy of close attention:

new (unknown) clients;
cases of discrediting personal data or reputation;
use of a shell company or legal entity with an opaque structure;
request for non-standard contract terms;
request to make a payment in cash, in advance or in favor of a person who is not a party to the transaction, or to another country;
requirement for early payment of commission under the contract;
a current government official or members of his family among the parties to the transaction;
refusal of a party to a transaction or agreement to conduct an anti-corruption audit or to include representations or warranties in the agreement;
international money transfers;
use of significant amounts of cash;
accounts of non-residents or temporary residents without permanent residence;
accounts of foreign clients and transit accounts;
letters of credit and other trade finance instruments;
client access to information constituting commercial or state secrets and the possibility of using this information for illegal purposes, for example, to manipulate the market;
payments whose economic feasibility is not justified;
non-transparent or not supported by relevant documents accounting;
insignificant business presence of the party to the transaction in the country where the transaction will be performed;
adjustment of requirements during the execution of the contract.

They will separately analyze counterparties from states with high levels of bribery and corruption (FATF blacklist), as well as regions bordering sanctioned countries, located in close proximity to them, as well as those who may have the ability to bypass penalty regimes.

Officials (national and foreign) and their representatives are generally classified as partners posing increased corruption risks. They are provided with in-depth monitoring.

With particular caution, banks should provide loans for capital construction projects, development of natural deposits, development of government infrastructure facilities and other similar purposes. These areas are considered as potentially corrupt.

The security of services for opening an account without the client’s personal presence or involving a third party also needs additional verification.

To monitor compliance with recommendations, maintain customer databases, conduct enhanced checks, search for suspicious transactions, maintain relevant data and train staff to be careful, banks are required to assign an independent employee or department.

All employees should be given the opportunity to report suspicious facts on condition of anonymity. Moreover, the bank's policy should spell out the personal responsibility of each employee to protect their financial institution from threats arising from money laundering. To do this, banks must constantly update the methods of monitoring their partners.

Information letter of the Bank of Russia dated December 27, 2017 No. IN-014-12/64

Features of swaps

Such currency conversion transactions include financial transactions related to the sale or purchase of banknotes in a strictly defined volume. A prerequisite is the need to complete a reverse transaction after a specified period of time. Most often used in exchanges between banking institutions and commercial companies.

General rules and standards do not apply to swap transactions. There is no separate market for their implementation. Compared to other financial instruments, they are of the least importance.

Flexible program conditions:

your age at the time of opening the program: when connecting the option “Exemption from payment of Insurance Contributions” from 18 to 55 years inclusive;
age of the Insured: from 18 to 65 years / 60 years (Basic package/Optimal package) on the start date of the insurance period, no more than 80 years on the expiration date of the insurance period;
You yourself determine the frequency of payment of contributions - annually, semi-annually, quarterly;
you yourself determine the period of savings: no less than 10 and no more than 35 years;
you also choose the amount of the insurance premium and the currency of savings (rubles, US dollars or euros).