Central Bank of Russia to obligate financial organizations to disclose anonymized data on ownership structure from 2027
MOSCOW. Dec 23 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia will start requiring financial organizations to disclose anonymized data on their ownership structure from 2027, the director of the CBR's Department for Admission and Cessation of Activities of Financial Organizations, Lyudmila Tyazhelnikova, said in an interview with Interfax.
Tyazhelnikova recalled that the CBR gave banks and other financial organizations the right not to disclose information sensitive to sanction risks, including data on ownership structure and information about managers, in 2022. This was not a ban on disclosing information, she said. There are organizations that continue to publish it even now, but there are few of them. For example, out of 352 operating credit institutions, only three banks disclose their ownership structure, which is less than 1%. Among microfinance companies, 28% continue to disclose information, among management companies the figure is 12%, among insurers it is 8% and among non-state pension funds it is 6%.
"The possibility not to disclose the ownership structure will remain next year. Nevertheless, understanding that the market needs some qualitative information about the ownership structures of its participants, we proposed the concept of anonymized information disclosure, without specific data on individuals and their shares. In the summer, we conducted a survey in which more than 400 organizations participated, and we also preliminarily discussed our approach with market participants. What are we proposing? We want to abandon the publication of data that identifies participants in ownership structures. At the same time, we plan to disclose information that essentially characterizes the ownership structure qualitatively, through a set of criteria that we have determined with the market," Tyazhelnikova said.
It is planned that this approach will be used for disclosing data on banks, non-state pension funds, insurance and management companies and microfinance companies. The Central Bank will continue to receive information on the ownership structure in the previous format and will continue to perform control and supervisory functions regarding participants in ownership structures, she said.
The Central Bank proposes to specify 12 criteria in the disclosure form, listing facts characterizing participants in ownership structures, the relationships between them in terms of control or influence over the financial organization, their business reputation and financial position.
For example, among such criteria include:
- the presence of individuals under whose control and/or significant influence the financial organization is;
- the presence in the ownership structure of individuals to whom the Central Bank has issued instructions due to recognition of their business reputation and/or financial position as unsatisfactory;
- the presence in the ownership structure of unfriendly non-residents;
- the presence of a transaction to acquire shares/stakes in a financial organization carried out without the consent of the CBR provided for by law;
- the presence in the ownership structure of individuals whose license was revoked or annulled by the Central Bank or who were excluded from the register.
"Answers to the criteria are possible in the form of 'yes' and 'no' or 'not applicable'. Thus, each market participant will form its own unique set of answers which will be published. Moreover, if a market participant does not wish to disclose information about itself in such an anonymized format, it can return to disclosing information in full, as was the case earlier, before 2022," Tyazhelnikova said.
The Central Bank itself will fill out the form for anonymized disclosure of the ownership structure, based on the data it has received from financial market participants and additional information available to the regulator. The data approval process will take from 20 days to two months from the moment consent is received from the financial organization, then the disclosure form with filled-in information about the market participant will be published on the Central Bank's website in the Admission to the Financial Market section, in the subsection Ownership Structures of Financial Market Participants. It will be updated as the Central Bank receives information about relevant changes in ownership structures.
In the regulator's opinion, the proposed form does not create risks of disclosing information about the owners of financial organizations.
"In our communication with the market, we also asked to assess identification risks. Based on the results, we concluded that it is impossible to identify the owners of organizations when disclosing information based on anonymized criteria. But since this is a completely new approach, a new disclosure format, everyone will need to get used to it - both market participants and third parties, that is, investors, experts, journalists; everyone who is interested in the ownership structure of market participants. I do not exclude that, given the experience of using the new format, we will see the need to fine-tune the approaches," she said.
"We plan that the necessary regulatory acts will be developed and adopted in 2026. I believe that, taking into account our release approach to the entry into force of regulatory acts, they will come into force no earlier than April 1, 2027," she said.
