Bank of Russia streamlines interaction between financial institutions and foreign customers
Financial institutions will be able to sign agreements with non-resident banks without legalising foreign official documents confirming their status. The relevant Bank of Russia Ordinance has been registered by the Ministry of Justice.
Financial institutions will require from all other foreign customers, both legal entities and unincorporated structures, to legalise documents confirming their status only in case of doubts about the reliability or accuracy of the documents submitted by them. Alternatively, if a financial institution has suspicions that its customer concludes an agreement to launder money or finance terrorism.
The innovation primarily streamlines the procedure for opening bank accounts for foreign customers, since it becomes easier to identify such customers and interact with them.