Banks in Estonia have gained the right to temporarily suspend payments that look suspicious, ERR News reports. The law passed by the Riigikogu also lets them communicate with the police and share information with other financial institutions, and the banks intend to start exercising the right.
The reason is fraud. According to ERR, people in Estonia lost nearly EUR 30 million to scammers last year, and only a few percent of victims managed to recover their money. Sandra Horma, who leads the Estonian Banking Association's work against fraud, said the change may not at first be welcomed by every customer, because people are generally convinced they want their transactions to go through.
A bank can intervene, for example, when an unusually large sum is being transferred to a new recipient
, ERR writes, adding that banks cannot intervene in every situation. Cash withdrawals began increasing significantly in 2026, and Horma said it was very difficult to do anything at bank branches.
ERR also notes a ruling of the European Court of Justice from October: if a scammer makes a transfer without the victim's consent, the bank must bear responsibility and refund the money. Legal experts quoted by ERR do not expect the ruling to increase compensation payments in Estonia. Attorney Ksenia Kravtšenko explained that when a customer enters their security credentials and hands them to a scammer, the bank does not treat the transaction as an unauthorised payment.
A planned measure that would have stopped people from entering Smart-ID PIN codes during a phone call was ready but has been abandoned, ERR reports, because customers prefer convenience over security.
Source: ERR News, . The text above is our own summary; the words in quotation marks are the source's.
What this means for an Estonian entrepreneur
For an Estonian company the change means that a first or unusually large payment to a new supplier may be held for a while while the bank checks it. Plan such payments with a margin before a contractual deadline, and keep the invoice and contract behind each payment ready, so that a question from the bank can be answered at once. A payment that a staff member authorises after being deceived may not count as unauthorised.
With monthly accounting every payment of your company is booked against its invoice or contract, so the documents a bank may ask about are already in order. Monthly accounting