OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2010. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation a draft Government Decree “On Introduction of Exceptions on Agreements between Credit and Insurance Organizations”. The draft Decree was devised by FAS Russia and agreed upon with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Finances of the Russian Federation, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The draft decree was discussed by the Working Group of the Expert Council for developing competition on the market of financial services that includes representatives of banking and insurance community.

FAS Russia devised the draft decree to extrapolate the General Exceptions for Agreements between Credit and Insurance Organizations, approved by No.386 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 30th April 2009, to co-operation between banks and insurers insuring the borrowers’ risks as part of the mortgage loans programmes. New provisions introduced by the draft Decree reflect accumulated experience in antimonopoly enforcement.

For instance, to prevent banks delaying the screening procedures of insurance companies, the draft decree requires banks to have a “closed” list of documents that an insurance organization must submit to start the inspection. The draft Decree also specified maximum deadlines for such inspections and for informing insurance companies about the results of the inspection.

The decree also adds the list of unacceptable agreement conditions. It will be forbidden to obligate insurers to put monetary funds to deposits and securities of credit organizations, and to maintain a certain size of account balance and account turnover with credit.

FAS Russia believes that adopting the Decree will create conditions for developing competition on the market of banking and insurance services.