Starting 1 January 2027, Bank of Russia to disclose information on financial institutions’ ownership in anonymised form
From 1 January 2027, the regulator will return to the practice of publishing information on the ownership structure of financial institutions but will now disclose it in anonymised form using a number of criteria. The relevant Bank of Russia ordinance has been registered by the Russian Ministry of Justice.
Such an approach will allow the market to get necessary information without increasing sanction risks to its participants. The new format will apply to disclosures about banks, non-governmental pension funds, insurance and management companies, as well as microfinance organisations.
Information will be disclosed based on 14 criteria. It is planned to publish a list of facts characterising the owners, data on any orders issued to them because of their bad business reputation or financial position, and so on. Possible answers to the criteria-based questions will be: ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘not applicable’. Therefore, each market participant will get a unique set of responses characterising them, which will then be published.
No additional burden on market participants is expected, as information on the ownership structure in anonymised form will be prepared by the regulator, taking into consideration the financial institution’s position. The information disclosure format proposed by the Bank of Russia’s ordinance was discussed and backed by financial market participants.