July 24, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the Russian consumer rights watchdog) conducted an unscheduled inspection of Sberbank of Russia and detected that the bank was charging its customers an illegitimate commission for taking out more than 50,000 RUR in cash from their accounts, the agency's press service reports.

Contrary to the current legislation, the bank unilaterally changed the rates and terms on which its services were offered to customers. For one, the holders of Social cards were faced with a limit of 1.5m RUR a month (50,000 RUR a day) that could be taken out of their card accounts in cash. A 0.5% commission was charged for any amount exceeding this limit.

Rospotrebnadzor division's experts ruled that these actions on the financial institution's part were unlawful, since a card is just an instrument meant for settlement and cash transactions relating to the money a customer keeps in their account, and the bank had no authority to limit a citizen's right to manage their own funds as they deem appropriate.