At the first stage, when businesses were especially stressed due to restrictions and uncertainty and because not all support programmes had gained momentum by then and banks had not yet adjusted their business processes since the number of restructuring applications was really enormous and nobody could have expected that, the Bank of Russia together with OPORA RUSSIA and other business associations created a ‘green line’ mechanism for businesses to apply to regarding any problems in their relations with banks. As a result, these were business associations who communicated with banks directly, and if they failed to solve a problem, the Bank of Russia intervened. This mechanism has proven to be efficient and highly requested. Therefore, we have decided to make it a permanent one. We are well aware that small companies may really face difficulties trying to gain banks’ consideration and loyalty towards them. Therefore, it is very good that they have their lobbyists, in the good sense of the word. 2/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  As I have already said at the beginning, it is critical for us to make the communication between the financial sector in general and small businesses as easy as possible. This is not only related to the accessibility of loans. Today, I would like to dwell on three issues. Of course, there are also other aspects, but since time is limited I will focus on three issues. Firstly, this is certainly anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF).
Therefore, we discussed this topic already last year, but we have now progressed to the active phase of the efforts aimed at establishing the centralised information service Know Your Customer, or KYC, as we have got used to saying. This platform will make it possible to reduce the number of banks’ refusals and companies’ expenses for the communication with banks. Clients’ risks will be assessed not by banks, but by the platform developed by the Bank of Russia that will classify companies into three risk groups according to the traffic light principle. Banks will be able to focus only on the group having these risk signs and on the analysis of the operations of clients involving potentially higher risks. We are going to launch this platform into regular operation at the end of 2021 and then scale it up so as to embrace all credit institutions by the end of 2022 Q1. Of course, we believe that it will make life easier for SMEs. We have also discussed how to improve this platform together with you. The second issue is the Faster Payments System (FPS). Initially, we launched it to enable P2P transfers. We can see that it is highly requested. However, right from the beginning, we have built this system considering the needs of retailers and small businesses and comprehending that this system may help SMEs cut costs significantly. The FPS addresses the issue of high acquiring fees and considerably reduces costs for trade and service companies.