10.05.2017

The state program of the Russian Federation Information Society (2011-2020), approved by the Government of the Russian Federation in October 2010, continues to be realized.

The program is aimed at giving individuals and companies opportunities to use the benefits of information and communication technologies using equal access to information sources, development of digital content, use of innovative technologies and extreme improvement of the efficiency of government regulation and information security at the same time.

Information market of the first quarter 2017 is marked by appearance of new legal form for notary offices; new procedures for the maintenance of following registries were set: the registry of security holders, insurers, collectors, companies of small and medium-sized businesses, controlled foreign companies; entry into force of the amended disclosure rules, including beneficiaries; establishment of future registration rules for self-employed people and other events.

Thus, the Bank of Russia approved the provision "On requirements to implementation of activities for maintaining the register of securities owners (№ 572-П от 27.12.2016). The document set the requirements for the rules of maintaining the register (including the register of investment unit owners), in particular, registration of documents, register book maintenance, protection and storage of records and documents, compilation of the lists of investment unit owners, mutual funds etc.

The Mega regulator also set the procedure of maintenance the register of insurance business associations (the order of the Bank of Russia «On the procedure for maintaining the register of insurance business associations…» № 4186-U as of 11.11.2016). The Financial Market Access Department was assigned to maintenance the register in electronic format. On monthly basis, the authorized division places the following information on official web site of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation: full name, location, the address of insurance business association etc.

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation issued an order "On approval of Administrative regulations of provision by Federal Bailiff Service of the state service on inclusion of information about legal entities in the state register of legal entities performing activities for return of overdue debt as the core activity" (№ 331 as of 31.12.2016). Among the experts, this register is known as the registry of debt collection agencies. The register maintenance was assigned on the Federal Bailiff Service. The decision is based on the results of provided state service: on registration in register; on refusal of registration; on amendments to information contained in the registry; on refusal of amendments to information contained in the registry; on issuing the duplicate certificate of registration in the registry etc.

From 1 January 2017 the order of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation «On the amendments to certain orders of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation on the issues of providing information, contained in the Unified State Register of Immovable Property as of 22.11.2016 №738 came into force. This document brought the regulatory framework, connected with the order of providing information from the Unified State Register of Immovable Property, in accordance with current legislation. In particular, the following items were updated: the forms of requests on providing information from the Unified State Register of Immovable Property in the form of extracts, the scope of information and getting information via access to the Federal state information system for the maintenance of the Unified State Register of Immovable Property and other requirements and rules.

The Federal Notarial Authority informed about the entry into force on 1 January 2017 the legislative amendments aimed on improving the system of registration of notifications on pledge of movable property. The information is accumulated in the Unified Information System of Notariate (UISN). In case the notice on pledge is sent in electronic format, the registration certificate of the notice will be sent by a notary to the applicant using the services of UISN.

To make information accumulation easier, the data placed in the registers above is also represented in the Information and Analytical system Globas-i®, this allow to estimate the contractor from different sides. While forming the business report the built-in analytic algorithms will select the information, directly relating to the contractor, and also will take into account the disturbing facts in the received information, estimate the risks and reflect the result in the appropriate indexes (for example, solvency and financial standing indexes) and comments to them, conclusions and recommendations for further cooperation.

In May 2017 the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree On a new strategy for the development of Russia’s information society from 2017-2030. It is assumed, that implementation of the fundamental items of the strategy will raise the development of the information market to a new level, will assist to the publicity of business, will form a national digital economy and ensure implementation of strategic national priorities.

Institute of Bankruptcy loses its effectiveness

The current bankruptcy law has turned out to be untenable. The statistics of asset recovery through court action is constantly decreasing, the measures for financial rehabilitation do not work. The only effective way to protect assets is to check business partners in advance and monitor constantly.

Less bankruptcies, more outstanding claims. According to the Information and Analytical system Globas-i® of the Information agency «Credinform», the court's decisions to start a bankruptcy proceeding were made against 15 000 legal entities in 2016 (in 2015 – against 18 600). A little more than 3 500 of such decisions were made for the 1st quarter of 2017. However, despite the decline in the number of bankruptcies, the statistics of debt collection in insolvency cases is also decreasing. According to the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information, the total share of cancelled claims of creditors (except bankruptcy cases of banks) to debtors – legal entities and individual entrepreneurs was only 3,2% (19,5 billion rubles from the declared 610 billion rubles) in 2016 and decreased by more than 2% in comparison with 2015 (then 5,4% of claims were cancelled: 25,5 billion rubles from 472,5 billion rubles). Experts agree: the effectiveness of the bankruptcy procedure fall constantly, to recover assets becomes more difficult, while the solvency restoration instrument also does not work.

Ineffective bankruptcy. There are several reasons for such bad statistics. Firstly, it is a lack of assets by debtors. The practice of doing business in Russia today is such that often only the necessary minimum of assets is concentrated on each business entity, which before the beginning of the bankruptcy procedure can be quickly replaced with an illiquid or just withdrawn, and creditors hardly will be able to count on anything. However, even an available property is often not easy to dispose, therefore the auctions are delayed, and the final reduction of price can reach 70%. Secondly, the monitoring procedure, being intended to rehabilitate the debtor's solvency, turns out to be also ineffective: it can drag on for more than a year, this time will be enough for unfair bankrupts to withdraw assets and destroy documentation. At the same time, too long procedure of monitoring prevents timely transition to recovery. Thirdly, the low level of professionalism of insolvency officers prevents the effectiveness of the bankruptcy procedure. And, finally, an important problem is the unappealable statutory right of creditors to decide the debtor's fate, that discourages him to keep his assets, that is why he goes for to withdraw them by any means.

Protection of assets is in the timely verification of business partners. First of all, the correction of the legislation is required to change the situation for the better. Currently, amendments to the bankruptcy law proposed by the Ministry of Economy are being approved. It is important to pay attention to improving the quality of work of insolvency officers. However, for radical improvement of the situation it is necessary to change the perception of the bankruptcy institute by the business community. And for this the general economic situation in the country should change, when the laws steady and effectively work over the decades, and the market operates under transparent and uniform rules for all participants. It will take a significant amount of time, meanwhile experts are solidarity in one point: for safe business it is necessary to take care of the reliability and solvency of business partners in advance, not relying on the possibility of debt collection through court action, including also during the bankruptcy procedure. Timely verification of new counterparties and permanent monitoring of existing ones will save the business from losses much more efficiently than any legal proceeding. An effective method of preventing risks of cooperation with unreliable business partners is the use of the Information and Analytical system Globas-i® , containing information about legal entities and individual entrepreneurs around the world, but, that is more important, has a wide range of analytical instruments, which allow to solve the problem of minimizing the risks of business cooperation rapid and effective.