Money Protected: Sber Adds a Smart Safeguard to Faster Payments
Sber has rolled out a “Transfer Return” feature in its mobile app, automating the reversal of mistaken transfers between its clients. The new button stays active for 10 days after funds are received.
The Faster Payments System – Sistema bystrykh platezhey (Faster Payments System, SBP) – remains the most widely used method for money transfers in Russia. According to the regulator, transactions via SBP reached 103 trillion rubles (about $1.1 trillion) in 2025. Previously, Sber clients who made a mistaken transfer had to contact customer support or visit a bank branch in person.
No Calls, No Bureaucracy
Sber’s mobile app now includes a new “Transfer Return” feature that lets users return received funds to the sender in a few taps or request a refund for an ошибочный перевод – oshibochnyy perevod (mistaken transfer). The tool works both ways within SBP. The bank says the feature remains active for 10 days, and returned funds do not count toward transfer limits.
Customers could previously return mistakenly sent or received money, but only by visiting a branch or calling a contact center. Sber has upgraded this existing capability by automating the process and removing manual steps and delays.
Speed matters to users, but so does security. The “Transfer Return” feature reduces fraud risks. Requests are generated only inside the Sberbank Online app and only between Sber clients. Users no longer need to respond to calls or messages asking them to send money back.
Sber has built a straightforward user flow that combines service logic and anti-fraud protection in a single action. This approach lowers the load on contact centers and cuts manual handling of claims. For large-scale mobile banking, it is a practical, if not entirely new, case.
Toward a Common Standard
Features like this could soon become standard across mobile banking. As one of the country’s largest banks, Sber is effectively setting expectations that smaller players will need to match to stay competitive.
As banking technology evolves, anti-fraud systems are becoming more robust. In 2024, the Central Bank required financial institutions to temporarily block suspicious transfers for up to two days. If the rule is violated, banks must return funds to customers within 30 days. Since 2025, major banks have integrated services into their apps to support victims of fraud. The “Transfer Return” feature adds another layer to this trend. Cybersecurity processes are gradually moving into fully digital workflows. The next step could be a unified in-app scenario that combines mistaken payment returns, fraud complaints and bank requests, with automatic prompts and warnings.
Sber’s new feature is a strong example of integrating a secure mechanism for returning funds between its own clients.
A New Era of Security
New rules to protect customers from fraud in bank transfers came into force in Russia in 2024. Banks must now either block suspicious transactions or reimburse stolen funds. This has increased the responsibility of financial institutions and pushed them to automate services and embed protection directly into mobile apps.
A similar fast-return SBP feature is currently available at another major bank, VTB. That suggests the competitive focus will soon shift from whether a bank offers this capability to how convenient, fast and secure it is.
Given that the average daily volume of transfers via SBP within Sber reached 50 million transactions in 2025, widespread adoption of such features could strengthen the resilience of the entire payments ecosystem.
An Expected Feature
Digital technologies, better customer service and stronger security are reshaping Russian fintech. Banks are not only launching new platforms but also upgrading existing tools.
Fraudsters have long exploited “mistaken transfer” schemes. In 2025 alone, the volume of transactions carried out without customer consent rose by 6.4%, while the number of such cases increased by 31.2%, according to the Central Bank. Victims who are asked to “return mistakenly credited funds to another account” risk losing their savings and may even become part of a criminal scheme. That makes secure return services and controlled interaction with senders not just a convenience, but a critical function.
SBP remains the most востребованная форма – vostrebovannaya forma (most in-demand format) – for financial transactions among Russian users, and fast returns are an intuitive feature likely to become standard in banking apps within the next one to two years.
