Bank of Russia establishes criteria for delineation of supervisory authority in microfinance market
The regulator will directly supervise microcredit companies (MCCs) with assets and loan portfolio exceeding 100 million rubles as well as consumer credit cooperatives (CCCs) and agricultural credit consumer cooperatives (ACCCs) where the number of members is less than 3,000 but assets exceed 100 million rubles. The relevant ordinances of the Bank of Russia are to come into force on 12 February 2021.
The law stipulates that the regulator controls the activity of all microfinance companies, CCCs and ACCCs where the number of members exceeds 3,000, as well as companies that temporarily do not participate in any self-regulatory organisation (SRO).
Thus, 17% of microfinance organisations, 33% of the active CCCs and 13% of the active ACCCs will be under direct supervision of the Bank of Russia.
SROs will oversee the compliance of other microfinance institutions (MCCs, CCCs and ACCCs) with sectoral regulations.
This proportional approach will help ease the regulatory burden of small microfinance market participants and improve the supervision over large market players.