Limits Set On Financial Organizations' Assets For Certain Business Transactions

The Russian government’s press-service has reported that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has approved a resolution “On Introducing Changes to Select Government Acts.” This resolution exempts financial organizations whose assets fall within a certain value from obtaining pre-approval for activities and business transactions from the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service. This pre-approval is outlined in the law “On Defense of Competition.”

The assets’ value is determined according to the balance sheet on the last closing date  preceding the date the agreement is concluded. The qualifying asset value for licensing companies is fixed at 3 billion rubles, for private pension funds – 2 billion rubles, for stock and currency markets – 1 billion rubles, for mutual insurance companies and consumer cooperates – 500 million rubles, for insurance underwriters (excluding medical insurance companies), insurance brokers, and professional stock market investors – 200 million rubles.

In addition, lending institutions may have an asset value of 24 billion rubles (up from the previous 14 billion) and avoid the pre-approval process for mergers and instead only notify the SAC of their merger no later than 45 days after it has occurred.