On Wednesday, April 27, the Federation Council ratified a law providing for the division of lending institutions in banks with universal and basic licenses depending on the size of their own funds (capital), RIA Novosti reported.
The law was worked out on the basis of the Bank of Russia's idea of introducing proportional regulation in the banking sector. The regulator proposes dividing institutions into those with basic and universal licenses.
To obtain a basic license the requirements for minimum capital will remain at Rub 300 mln as now, and maximum capital will be capped at Rub 3 bln. A bank's capital should be at least Rub 1 bln if the bank seeks a universal license. The Bank of Russia is intended to start granting universal and basic banking licenses effective January 1, 2018.
Banks that will be issued basic licenses will operate, on balance, as this is done at the moment, i.e. they will see easier supervision with regard to the number of mandatory ratios they should comply with in exchange for limited operations.
The draft law was approved in the first reading in late February. By the second reading it was amended to ban banks with basic licenses from opening correspondent accounts at foreign banks, and also to limit risks associated with a borrower or a group of borrowers at 20% of equity. In the new edition of the law banks with basic licenses are released from the obligation to report to the Bank of Russia about acceptable risks, risk assessment, risk management and capital management procedures.
