THE FAS RUSSIA CLARIFIED APPROACHES TO REVIEW THE ASSETS OF FINANCIAL ORGANIZATIONS

On the proposal of the FAS Russia, the Government of the Russian Federation decided that in order to exercise antimonopoly control in the field of economic concentration the assets of credit and microfinance institutions should be reviewed taking into account changes in the value of assets of each of the organizations.

Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1229 of August 15, 2020 “On amendments to Paragraph 4 of the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1072 of October 18, 2014” entered into force on September 1, 2020.

The act clarified the procedure for annual review of credit and microfinance organizations assets, at exceeding of which it is required to obtain the prior consent of the Antimonopoly Authority to perform transactions and actions provided for in the Articles 27 and 29 of the Federal Law on Protection of Competition.

Until that time, Resolution No. 1072 provided that such amounts can change only if the total amount of assets of all financial organizations of the corresponding type has changed over the past period.

“However, in recent years, there has been a situation where the value of assets of all players does not change significantly, but the value of assets of individual market participants increases significantly while simultaneously reducing this value for other players,” said Evgeniya Gaysenova, Deputy Head of the Department - Head of the Division for Methodology of Antimonopoly Control over Financial Markets of the FAS Russia.

In this regard, when conducting an annual analysis of the need to change the values set out in the Resolution No. 1072, the FAS Russia assessed not only data on total assets, but also the link between the values of individual players' assets and their indicators of market concentration in the relevant markets.

“De facto, this approach to the analysis proved to be more optimal, and therefore it was decided to consolidate it de jure,” added Evgeniya Gaysenova.

Reference:

In accordance with the Paragraph 4 of the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1072 of October 18, 2014 “On establishing the values of assets of financial organizations supervised by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the purpose of antimonopoly control”, the FAS Russia, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, annually, until December 25, submits proposals to the Government of the Russian Federation to change the value of assets of credit organizations and microfinance organizations specified in the Paragraph 1 of the Resolution.