How to fill in a payment order for payments in Russian roubles in the English language

The requirement to fill in the payment orders in Russian is based on the established banking practice and the following justification:

• Payment system. There are no precise data available whether any Regional Branch of the Bank of Russia accepts documents in English.
• Tax control. In most cases, the payment order has to contain be a taxation reference (with the payment amount indicated separately) or a notice of no tax paid. This reference is inserted for the purposes of the tax administration institutions of the Russian Federation requiring information in the official language of the Russian Federation.
• Currency control. Currency control implies compliance control of the respective financial transaction with the Russian legislation, as well as compliance control in respect of payment code VO (currency operation code). The function of currency control is performed by the authorised banks of Russia that are the agents of currency control and are entrusted with the control of the financial transactions effected by non-residents.

For the purposes of such control the following is required:

• A detailed description of the transaction in the payment order (for example, apart from the number of contract also the subject of the contact must be indicated: sale of goods or delivery of service etc.);
• A precise and unambiguous interpretation of the payment order by the employee of any bank and automatic control systems involved in the execution of the payment.

(Most Russian banks have partly automated the currency control process. The process uses text analysis pertaining to one or the other key word in the Russian language. Payments orders in the English language render the automatic control impossible. Consequently, these payment orders may be put aside for later verification or the respective control may get protracted. Also, considering that the use of the English language is contrary to the existing banking practice, certain Russian banks are likely to refuse such payments at all).

Taking into account the above, we cannot guarantee a prompt execution of payment orders prepared in the English language.

Transliteration rules

Due to particularities of the payment system, provisions of currency and tax control in the Russian Federation as well as on the basis of the existing banking practice in there, orders for payments in Russian roubles are to be prepared in the Russian language using the Latin alphabet to comply with the following transliteration rules:

Cyrillic	A	Б	В	Г	Д	Е	Ж	З	И	Й	К	Л	M	Н
Latin	A	B	V	G	D	E	ZH	Z	I	Y	K	L	M	N
Cyrillic	О	П	Р	С	Т	У	Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Ш	Щ	Ъ	Ы
Latin	O	P	R	S	T	U	F	H	C	CH	SH	TSH	X	YI
Cyrillic	Ь	Э	Ю	Я	‘‘ (double)
Latin	X	YE	YU	YA	‘‘ (two separate)

The fact that our banks use the same transliteration principles guarantees a correct interpretation of the text in the payment order even after its transliteration from Latin letters into Cyrillic and vice versa.

Outgoing payments

When effecting an international transfer in Russian roubles, make sure that apart from other standard payment details, the submitted payment order contains the following details:

• BIC code of the beneficiary's bank: 9-digit number;
• Correspondent account of the beneficiary's bank with the Russian Central Bank: a 20-digit number starting with 301… and with the last three digits coinciding with the last three digits of the BIC code;
• If the account of the beneficiary is with a branch of the beneficiary's bank, indicate also the correspondent account of the branch: a 20-digit number starting with 303;
• Name of the beneficiary (or name, patronymic (for residents), surname);
• Beneficiary's INN, if the beneficiary is a legal entity and resident of Russia;
• Beneficiary's account number: a 20-digit number;
• Accurate and clear purpose of payment, number and date of invoice and agreement , NDS (VAT) amount. If service or commodity is subject to tax exemption, you are required to indicate "WITHOUT NDS". When filling in the detail field of a payment order you must start with indicating a code which consists of combination of two letter ''VO'' (currency operation code) which is followed by transaction code that consists of 5 characters without any space betwen them.
  For example, ''VO01010 ZA UGOLX PO DOGOVORU NO 1, NDS 300 RUB''. In order to avoid misunderstandings it would be advisable to write in Russian in Latin alphabet.

To avoid any hitches during processing of your payments, please bear in mind the following:

• where the beneficiary's name is longer than is possible to be entered in the payment field "Beneficiary's name", it is recommended to continue in the field "Beneficiary's address";
• Any information that is not to be transliterated into Cyrillic alphabet must be entered using Latin alphabet letters, separated by forward slashes, for example, the beneficiary's name: /International X Corporation/;

Payments failing to comply with the aforementioned criteria, may be rejected