Starting October 15, 2026, major Russian mobile operators plan to block calls from banks that have failed to implement mandatory call labeling. The initiative, led by MTS, T2, MegaFon, and Beeline, targets financial institutions that have not signed or are not complying with existing labeling agreements.
The Ministry of Digital Development has requested the Central Bank of Russia to ensure compliance among banks to prevent negative socio-economic consequences. While over 90% of the banking sector and nearly 100% of other organizations have already adopted the labeling system, major players remain the primary holdouts.
Major banks generate 95% of banking spam, with some entities making tens of millions of calls per month. For instance, Alfa-Bank records 43 million calls, and Sovcombank 22.7 million in a single operator's network. Labeling is a paid service, costing approximately 0.30 rubles per call attempt.
Experts estimate that labeling costs for a large bank can reach up to 1 billion rubles annually, with the total market expenditure estimated at 20 billion rubles. Analysts warn that blocking these calls could disrupt critical security notifications, such as transaction confirmations, potentially impacting customer safety.
