Putin signs law on interaction between Central Bank, prosecutors, foreign regulators in monitoring ban on officials having foreign accounts
MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that will allow the Central Bank to provide the Prosecutor General's Office with information obtained from foreign banking and financial market regulators to check how Russian officials comply with the law banning them from having foreign bank accounts.
The law sets out the procedure for interaction between the Central Bank, Prosecutor General's Office and foreign regulators if investigators have been unable to receive such information from a foreign regulator directly.
At present the Central Bank may request financial information, including a banking secret, from a foreign regulator but is not allowed to share it with third parties.
Article 26 (banking secret) of the Russian law on banks and banking has now been extended to allow the Central Bank to release such information to third parties, provided such data were requested for the purpose of monitoring the ban on officials having bank accounts abroad.
Under the new clause, the Bank of Russia, on receiving a request from the Prosecutor General's Office in relation to the monitoring of the ban, shall ask a foreign regulator to provide such information including data containing a banking secret. On receiving the information, the Bank of Russia will inform the Prosecutor General's Office of the results of the consideration of its request.
"Furthermore, the Bank of Russia is obligated to comply with the requirements to disclose information and provide documentation as established by the laws of a foreign state and (or) an international treaty [involving] the Russian Federation," the document says.
The Prosecutor General's Office and Central Bank can determine the procedure and conditions of their interaction in an agreement.
The law will come into effect 180 days after its official publication.
The three-bill package banning officials from holding foreign bank accounts and shares passed final Duma reading in April 2013.