NEWS .

NATIONAL BANK OF BELARUS SIMPLIFIED THE PROCEDURE OF STATE REGISTRATION OF BANKS

The National Bank of Belarus (NBB) simplified the procedure of state registration of banks, non-bank financial intermediaries and licensing of banking activity, as the member of the Board of Directors of the NBB, Head of the General Directorate of Banking Supervision, Sergey Dubkov, informed, with reference to the Resolution of the Board of the National Bank No.111.

"In the frames of the state program of simplification of the procedure of state registration of legal persons the National Bank revised the basic document governing the order of creation of banks and licensing of banking activities», - S. Dubkov said.

Thus, the NBB unified the order and terms for approval of the bank's name, issue of documents on registration with the state authorities and permission for making a seal with the corresponding procedures for other commercial organizations.

Procedure of obtaining consent of the NBB for acquisition of the bank's shares has been also liberalized. The requirement to submit a declaration of the source of funds to obtain consent of the NBB for acquisition of more than 5% of shares has been abolished. The requirement to submit a balance-sheet of the legal entity for the previous year or another period (as agreed with the National Bank), together with the auditor's opinion proving its authenticity, and containing evidence that the legal entity has sufficient own funds for contribution to the authorized capital of the bank, is now abolished for acquisition of bank's shares when it's not related to the increase of the bank's authorized capital.

Obtaining of consent of the NBB for re-organization of the bank has been simplified as well. Resolution on the state registration of the re-organized bank is considered consent. The consent issued by the NBB should state the limited quantity of shares or a share in the authorized capital of the bank that can be acquired during the year.

Additionally, the NBB substantially bated licensing demands to the size of the regulated capital of banks laying a claim for the right to deal with precious metals and stones. The figure has been decreased from the equivalent of 25 million Euros to 5 million Euros.

On the other hand, the Resolution provides for the change of order of taking a resolution by the NBB on extension of licensing authorities of a bank in part of granting it the right to raise funds from physical persons. Besides the necessity of formal compliance with the existing requirements and prudential standards, while taking the mentioned resolution the Board of the NBB will be considering a motivated assessment of activity of the bank performed by the General Directorate of Banking Supervision.

Besides that, in accordance with recommendations of the IMF and the World Bank, the NBB introduced the requirement of updating the information on the ultimate beneficial owners of the bank (in regards with holding of not less than 5% of shares) at making amendments and additions to the banking license, as well as at receiving of its duplicate. «The National Bank possesses all the necessary information on the ultimate beneficiaries of the existing banks, but previously these details used to be obtained basing on the aggregate of provisions of a number of Acts. Now the requirement to submit details on the ultimate owners of banks has been made in the form of instruction, which allows to interpret it unambiguously», - S. Dubkov clarified.