Bank of Russia proposes key principles of good conduct in financial market

The draft Code of Good Conduct elaborated by the regulator was proposed to market participants for discussion.

The Code covers operations undertaken by all financial organisations and is advisory in nature. This baseline document promotes business and ethical standards in the financial market, its development, and consumer protection.

The Code includes seven key principles underlying the operations of financial organisations: honesty, fairness, transparency, protection, professionalism, accountability and integrity.

The Code can be enacted by either including all or individual items in SRO principles and standards, or using them to develop codes for individual financial organisations, markets and professions. At the same time, given the international practice of the financial community accepting such documents, the Code may further be used as a soft law for the ethical resolution of problems arising from unfair conduct of legal financial market participants.

The Bank of Russia plans to complete discussions of the Code with the professional community and all stakeholders in the first half of 2019.  In the follow-up to the discussions, the Bank of Russia may decide on specific measures to encourage market participants to bring their corporate culture in line with the Code of Good Conduct.