ANDREY KASHEVAROV: PROCEDURE CONTROLLING TRANSACTIONS OF ECONOMIC CONCENTRATION WITH REGARD TO CREDIT ORGANIZATIONS IS REVISED

The Deputy Head of the FAS Russia explains that persons planning to make transactions and other actions provided for by the Law on Protection of Competition with regard to credit organization whose assets (total value of assets) are more than 29 billion rubles have to obtain prior consent of the antimonopoly authority now.

On December 3, 2020, a Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 25, 2020 No 1929 On Amending the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 1072 of October 18, 2014 will come into force, which approves a decrease in the value of the assets of credit institutions, at exceeding of which it is required to obtain the prior consent of the Antimonopoly authority for the execution of transactions stipulated by the Federal Law On Protection of Competition, other actions in relation to such organizations, from 33 to 29 billion rubles.

Previously, the Service submitted a proposal to the Government of the Russian Federation that was approved by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Bank of Russia.

It should be reminded that the Decree No 1929 was developed as part of the annual review of the value of assets of credit and microfinance organizations according to the data on changes in the value of assets of these organizations over the past year, as well as based on the results of a study of the state of competitive environment in these markets.

The results of the study showed that currently there are a number of credit organizations with significant shares in certain regional banking markets, transactions and other actions with regard to which may lead to an increase in concentration in the relevant markets.

“Now all transactions and other actions with regard to credit organizations that have the risk of restricting competition are under the control of the antimonopoly authorities. It is necessary to prevent monopolization of certain banking services markets in the Russian Federation's constituent entities,” Andrey Kashevarov, Deputy Head of the FAS Russia, said.

“At the same time, the value of the assets of microfinance organizations, above which it is required to obtain preliminary consent for economic concentration transactions, remained at the same level - 3 billion rubles,” Olga Sergeeva, Head of the Department for Control over Financial Markets of the FAS Russia, said.