The Federal Law No. 302-FL of July 31, 2020 introduced significant amendments to the law "On credit histories". They are aimed at a comprehensive modernization of the existing system for the building up credit histories.

In particular, the amendments concerned the focus of the law. Now the goals of the law are:

• strengthening the protection of creditors and borrowers, as a result of an overall reduction in credit risks;
• improving the efficiency of providing and returning borrowed funds;
• creation and definition of conditions for the collection, processing, storage and submission of information to the credit histories bureaus of information characterizing the timeliness of fulfillment of obligations.

The following authorities may cooperate with the credit histories bureaus:

• courts on cases in their proceedings;
• federal executive authorities;
• notaries;
• arbitration managers.

The amendments introduced qualified credit histories bureaus, which are authorized to calculate the total debt or payment burden of citizens.

To improve the reliability and quality of data used to calculate the debt burden, the law provides for the exchange of information between qualified and other credit histories bureaus, as well as between credit histories bureaus and creditors.

Significant amendments were made to the provisions on the composition of information included in the credit history.

Now, the main part of the credit history of individuals should contain the following information concerning the subjects of credit history:

• place of registration and actual place of residence;
• phone number (including mobile);
• e-mail addresses, if provided by subjects of credit history;
• information on state registration of individuals as individual entrepreneurs;
• information about the procedures for insolvency (bankruptcy) of individuals, if the arbitration court has accepted an application for recognition as insolvent (bankrupt);
• information about illegal actions of individuals in insolvency (bankruptcy);
• information on deliberate or fictitious bankruptcy, with the link and date on the inclusion of information in the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information.

In addition, a new list of information has been formed regarding the obligations of borrowers, guarantors, principals and lessees.

Thuswise, the list of transactions for which information should be sent to the credit histories bureau, as well as the list of sources for building up credit histories, has been clarified.

The law also expands the supervisory powers of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in relation to credit histories bureaus.

According to the information of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, as of September 25, 2020, the State Register of Credit Histories Bureau contains information about 9 credit histories bureaus. Information on bureaus is available for the subscribers of the Information and Analytical system Globas.

From November 1, 2020, the Federal Law of July 31, 2020 No. 247-FL "On mandatory requirements in the Russian Federation" comes into force.

Mandatory requirements are requirements established by:

• federal laws,
• decrees of the President of the Russian Federation,
• legal acts of the Government of the Russian Federation, federal executive bodies and subjects of the Russian Federation, municipal legal acts,
• the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union of 29 May, 2014 and the legal acts of the Eurasian Economic Union,
• international treaties of the Russian Federation,
• legal acts of the State Atomic Energy Corporation «Rosatom» and the State Corporation for Space Activities «Roskosmos».

The law defines the principles for establishing and assessing the application of the mandatory requirements contained in regulatory legal acts:

• related to the implementation of business and economic activities,
• compliance with which is monitored by state and municipal supervisory authorities,
• related to bringing to administrative responsibility, with the provision of licenses and other permits, accreditations, etc.

The law stipulates that legal acts establishing mandatory requirements may enter into force only from March 1 or September 1 of the corresponding year, but not earlier than 90 days after the day of official publication.

The law also defines the principles for establishing and assessing the application of mandatory requirements:

• the purposes of establishing mandatory requirements can only be the protection of people's life and health, morality, rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations, not causing harm to animals, plants, environment, defense and security of the state, cultural heritage objects, values protected by law;
• application of mandatory requirements by analogy is unacceptable;
• mandatory requirements must correspond to the modern level of development of science and technology, national economy and material and technical base;
• assessment of the risk of causing harm to legally protected values should be the result of an analysis of objective and regularly collected information on the level of harm caused;
• establishment of mandatory requirements should be accompanied by an assessment of the availability and effectiveness of alternative measures to prevent harm;
• mandatory requirements must comply with the principle of legal certainty, ie. be clear, logical and understandable;
• mandatory requirements should not duplicate and contradict each other;
• mandatory requirements must be brought to the attention of persons obliged to comply with them by publishing regulatory legal acts in compliance with the relevant procedures;
• mandatory requirements must be enforceable, ie. commensurate with the cost of their implementation and with the risks avoided by these requirements;
• establishment of mandatory requirements that exclude the possibility of fulfilling other mandatory requirements is not permissible;
• risks of selective application of mandatory requirements should be minimized.

The assessment of mandatory requirements for compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and the above principles is carried out through legal expertise of draft regulations, including the assessment of regulatory impact.

Regardless of the recognition as invalid, not effective in the territory of the Russian Federation or canceled regulatory legal acts within the framework of the "regulatory guillotine", from January 1, 2021, when exercising state control, it is not allowed to assess compliance with mandatory requirements if they entered into force before January 1, 2020 It was also established that from January 1, 2021, non-compliance with the requirements contained in such acts will not be the basis for bringing to administrative responsibility if they entered into force before January 1, 2020.

From January 1, 2021, when exercising state control, granting licenses and other permits, accreditations, it is not allowed to assess compliance with the mandatory requirements contained in officially unpublished regulatory legal acts (with the exception of requirements constituting state secrets, related to legally protected or restricted information).

These provisions are not applied in the electric power industry, as well as in the implementation of public-private partnership projects with the participation of the Russian Federation.