Anti-Drop Shield: Making Life Harder for Scammers
As cybercrime grows and money laundering schemes using “drop” accounts expand, the Central Bank of Russia has announced the development of a national Anti-Drop platform. This centralized system is designed to detect and block fraudulent financial activity before it can spread.
Beyond Blacklists
According to the Central Bank, the number of identified “droppers”—individuals who knowingly or unknowingly provide their accounts for cashing out illicit funds—has reached 1.2 million. In just eight months, the figure grew by half a million.
Until now, banks have fought this problem separately, each maintaining its own blacklist. But with 148 regional banks across Russia, fraudsters easily bypassed restrictions by opening accounts at 20 or 30 institutions at once. Without a unified data-sharing system, fast response was impossible.
“As a result, each bank is blind to droppers arriving for service until their behavior matches typical patterns. Only then do countermeasures kick in, with a time lag depending on the bank’s procedures,” explained Bogdan Shablya, head of the Central Bank’s Financial Monitoring and Currency Control Service, speaking at the International Banking Forum in Sochi.
A Unified Database
The Anti-Drop platform is designed to close this gap. Shablya emphasized that the system will centrally share information on droppers with all banks, automatically blocking them from peer-to-peer transfers and cash deposits—two key activities used in fraud schemes.
The concept will be published in the first half of 2026, with launch scheduled for 2027. The platform will become a systemic element of Russia’s digital economy, raising transparency, trust, and regulatory control across the payment system.
Russia already has a similar system for businesses: since 2022, banks have been assessing corporate clients using the “Know Your Customer” platform (ZSK), exchanging data with the Central Bank. Anti-Drop will extend this approach to individuals, likely using taxpayer identification numbers (INN) as unique identifiers.
Triple Impact
For the IT industry, Anti-Drop is poised to become the country’s largest government fintech project. It will require large-scale integration with banking automation systems, anti-fraud solutions, and state digital platforms such as the Digital Profile. The payoff: greater transparency of financial flows and reduced shadow economy activity.
The system complements the new powers of Rosfinmonitoring, which since June 2025 has been able to suspend suspicious transactions independently.
For citizens, the effect is twofold: stronger protection against social engineering and drop recruitment, alongside stricter scrutiny of suspicious transactions—ultimately reducing the risk of losing money.
Managing the Risks
Since 2021, the Central Bank has been tightening requirements for banks to spot suspicious activity. In September, the regulator outlined its strategic plan for the financial market through 2028.
“To ensure financial stability, the Bank of Russia will monitor systemic risks, refine analytical approaches, and develop measures to mitigate threats,” the regulator’s press office reported.
By 2028, Anti-Drop could become a shield against financial crime. In time, platform modules may even be exported to Russia’s BRICS partners, who also face rising peer-to-peer fraud worldwide.
