Shareholder duties

Mon, 02/10/2017

Requirements for shareholders of financial organisations will be extended in Russia. By Yuliya Umnova, Head of Product Dev. and Relationship Mmt., GSS Russia

A new Federal Law toughening the demands for investors in banks and financial organisations will come into force in January.

Among the main provisions of the Law are the following:

  • The acquisition of more than 10% of a bank or a financial organisation or the establishment of control over them must be preliminarily approved by the Bank of Russia. According to the Law, this requirement not only relates to separate investors but is extended to a group of related investors and legal entities that control them, whereby if cumulatively any investment of a group of such related investors is above 10%, it needs to be approved, even if the stake of each individual investor within the group is still below 10%.
  • In case the above provision is violated, the Bank of Russia has the right to appeal within a one-year period the decisions of the general shareholder meeting of the bank or the financial organisation, if such decisions have been made with the participation of shareholders who violated the above-mentioned requirement.
  • The financial standing and business reputation of banks’ and financial organisations’ shareholders should meet the requirements during the entire period of shareholding of the bank or the financial organisation.

 

The same requirements will be applied to non-state pension funds, professional participants of the securities market, credit, and microfinance and clearing organisations. The law (Nr. 281-FZ) will become effective as of 28 January 2018.

 

Contact Details

Yuliya Umnova
Head of Product Development and Relationship Management
GSS Russia
Yuliya.Umnova@unicredit.ru