FAS and the Bank of Russia concluded a new Agreement on Cooperation

On 8 June 2017 the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation entered into a new Agreement on Cooperation.

First of all, the Agreement covers the parties obligations already being fulfilled by the parties to cooperate in order to control compliance with the antimonopoly law by all financial organizations subordinate to the Bank of Russia and classified as such under the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” as well as payment systems operators and operators of payment infrastructure services, self-regulated organizations on the financial market.

The previous Agreement of 23 August 2005 determined the procedure for interaction between FAS and the Bank of Russia in this field only with regard to credit organizations.

For instance, in accord with the newly signed Agreement the parties will continue investigating on a parity basis cases on violating the antimonopoly law by financial organizations subordinate to the Bank of Russia, organize joint consultations, conferences, workshops, take part in the work of the Expert Councils; participate in drafting regulatory acts in accord with the established procedures and be involved in other events.

The parties’ obligations under the Agreement include informing each other on possible signs of violating both the antimonopoly and sector-specific laws, compliance with which is controlled and supervised by the parties.

An important characteristic of the Agreement is arrangements on exchanging information, related to operations of financial organizations subordinate to the bank of Russia, in electronic form according to the relevant regulations that the parties need to approve.

Further on, the arrangements will enable the antimonopoly bodies to promptly obtain information about performance indicators for such financial organizations, for instance, competitive environment on the markets of financial services.

The Agreement on Cooperation between FAS and the Bank of Russia is one of the first fulfilled measures of the Action Plan (“Road Map”) for “Developing Competition on the Market of Financial Services”), approved by No. 612/17 FAS Order of  10 May 2017 and coordinated with the Bank of Russia.