Soon, a limit will be introduced in Russia on the number of bank cards a person can open at the same bank, announced the governor Elvira Nabiullina.
“From September 1 of this year, the rule limiting the number of cards in a single bank should come into effect,” Nabiullina stated.
By 2027, authorities plan to create a unique system for keeping track of bank cards, which will allow for the verification of the total number of cards held by a customer and their monitoring.
The initiative is part of the second package of measures to combat cyber fraud, called “Antifraud 2.0”, which the Russian government submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in December 2025. The document contains measures designed to protect the customers of financial institutions.
The project proposes limiting the number of cards to a maximum of five in a single bank and no more than 20 in total for each person.
The Bank of Russia believes that these limits will help combat the phenomenon known as “drop” — intermediaries used by scammers to transfer and withdraw stolen money.
According to Nabiullina, the new rules should not cause problems for most customers, as ordinary citizens do not open hundreds or thousands of cards.
According to estimates by the Central Bank, in 2025 the losses caused by scams reached 29.3 billion rubles (approximately 300 million euros), and the number of transactions carried out without the customers’ consent exceeded 1.5 million.
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