In order to increase transparency in concluding deals within the framework of the state defense order, the government and the Central Bank presented a new initiative, which, according to representatives of the banking sector, will soon begin to be translated into reality. What is the innovation?
The fact is that, starting from 25 in August of the current year, Russian banks participating in financial operations of the state defense order system will have to send notifications to the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of all those operations in which defense enterprises participate in the state defense order. At the same time, the deadline for submitting this kind of notification is very short. It is about submitting documentation containing information on the transfer of finances in the accounts of all contractors and subcontractors within the framework of the state defense order, within one working day.
From 25 August 2015, banks must promptly - within one working day - transfer information to the Rosfinmonitoring on the movement of funds in the accounts of contractors and subcontractors under the state defense order. Reports about it in particular Central Bank of Russia. Its instruction 3731-Y from 15.07.2015 of the year carries the following name:
"On Amendments to Annex 8 to the Regulation of the Bank of Russia 29 August 2008 No. 321-P" On the procedure for submitting to credit institutions to the authorized body information provided for by the Federal Law "On Counteracting Legalization (Laundering) of Criminally Income and Financing of Terrorism "(Comes into force upon the expiration of 10 days after the day of its official publication in the Vestnik of the Bank of Russia).
As the name implies, the instruction has a wide range of applications and concerns not only anti-corruption, including in the implementation of the state defense order, but also setting barriers to financial flows that go to the wallets of terrorist organizations.
It would seem that due to the huge number of various banks and other financial and credit organizations operating in the Russian Federation, the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring will simply not be able to track all those operations involving the transfer of funds in the accounts of banking entities. However, one should not forget that an important rule applies to participants in the state defense order. Participants do not have the right to open accounts for the maintenance of the GOZ in those financial and credit institutions whose capitalization is below the bar in 5 billion rubles. Thus, a company that is ready to assume obligations to fulfill a given volume of a state defense order may open an account, for example, with VTB, Gazprombank, Sberbank or other major financial and credit organizations of the Russian Federation. And it is the movement of funds in the accounts in these banks (if the movement of funds relates to the realization of the GOZ) and must, from 25 August, monitor the Rosfinmonitoring - up to settlements with foreign implementers of a certain segment of the GOZ.
That is, the chain looks like this: if a company is going to participate in the implementation of a state defense order, then it must open an account in a large Russian bank, and a large Russian bank, in turn, must transmit the full range of information about the movement of funds held in this account to the controlling state , specifically - the Federal Financial Monitoring Service. Rosfinmonitoring has the opportunity to control the operations of transferring funds from one account to another, acquiring any securities for these funds, withdrawing and depositing funds into accounts serving the state defense order. Moreover, it should be noted that if, under the current legislation, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service had the ability to directly control financial transactions for the state defense order in the amount of 50 million rubles, the innovations will allow Rosfinmonitoring to “monitor” virtually every ruble. The question immediately arises: why is such an opportunity given to the controlling body only now?
But as they say, better late than never ...
Can these innovations, on which the Russian government and the Central Bank worked, improve the transparency of transactions under the state defense order? If you are guided by the very letter of these innovations, then indisputably. However, there are also its pitfalls that need to be mentioned. This is the transparency of the banking system in the case of the state defense order and the punishment that banks can incur if notifications about operations with companies implementing state defense orders “suddenly” are late or not at all presented to the regulatory authorities. Nothing is known about the punishment yet ... In addition, the responsibility of the controlling bodies themselves grows many times. After all, to be honest, every controlling authority in our country (and not only in ours) often needs to be monitored no-no, yes, and controlled ... And considering that Rosfinmonitoring will have to closely deal with money laundering transactions through offshore funds state defense order, the responsibility and does grows at times.
It should also be noted that among the so-called liberal economists, any control of banking by state institutions is perceived almost as a direct pressure on banks and a blow to banking secrecy. However, the state defense order is the segment of state activity in which to rely on the opinions of liberal economists is the last thing. Moreover, in this situation, the state is one of the parties to the transaction, and therefore has the full right to control how it is going to dispose of its funds. And if someone is going to cover the transfer of public finances “to the left” (to offshore or somewhere else) with “bank secrecy,” then this is not material for discussion in the media, but for investigation by law enforcement agencies.