Unified register of bank guarantees. Register of bank guarantees: where to look?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Government purchases are related to the development of budgetary funds. In order for this process to proceed effectively, the institution of bank guarantees was introduced in Russia by law. One of the tools for their provision was a special state registry.

What is this

The register of bank guarantees was created thanks to the idea of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia. Employees of this department decided that at the legislative level it is necessary to approve a mechanism that would allow organizing an additional degree of protection for state customers from the actions of unreliable suppliers. According to some experts, this could help to spend budget funds more efficiently.

This mechanism is called the "register of bank guarantees". This is an information base (technically an online resource) that publishes information about financial institutions and the guarantees they issue in order to secure their obligations in relation to state or municipal contracts.

Legal Framework

Public procurement is a phenomenon in which cash flows come from the budget. It is especially important that they do not occuruncontrolled "development" so that suppliers (executors) perform paid work and provide services in full. And if they are unable to do this, someone will compensate for the losses of the state customer. In April 2014, a new version of Federal Law No. 44 came into force, according to which compensation for losses must be guaranteed by the bank with which the supplier has concluded an appropriate type of contract.

What are bank guarantees

Russian laws require firms applying for the role of a contractor or service provider in public procurement to have bank guarantees - the obligations of financial institutions to pay the customer if, for any reason, the obligations under the contract on the part of the contractor are not fulfilled. Sometimes bank guarantees are also used in non-state business segments, but 80% of the turnover in this segment, according to some analysts, relate specifically to public procurement.

If the supplier does not have such a guarantee, he cannot participate in tenders or auctions. The financial institution, in turn, receives from the latter - within the framework of the agreement - remuneration (percentage or a fixed amount). An important factor that determines whether a bank guarantee will be issued is the register of banks admitted to interact with suppliers in the framework of public procurement. More on him later.

Guarantees within the registry

Once guarantees are on the register, they become binding. They cannot be called back. That is, as soon as the guarantee enters the register, it can beconsidered genuine and not subject to cancellation or adjustment. Customers can negotiate with suppliers with confidence.

The register of bank guarantees includes data on participants in the public procurement market. The following information is indicated.

Firstly, these are bank details (name, address, TIN).

Secondly, this is the amount that the guarantor bank will pay to the customer if the supplier fails to fulfill its obligations under the state or municipal contract.

Thirdly, this is the data (address, name, TIN) of the supplier or contractor.

Fourthly, this is a list of the contractor's obligations, which are secured by the same bank guarantee.

The registry contains a number of additional details. For example, the conditions under which the guarantor will fulfill its obligations (transfer funds to the customer), the period during which the bank guarantee is valid.

How can I get a bank guarantee?

Not every willing supplier can get a bank guarantee without fail. There are certain requirements. Among these are the availability of access to the performance of relevant work, licenses, permits, etc. Some experts note the intensification of the work of firms involved in assisting in obtaining such documents, as well as those that provide consulting services for obtaining bank guarantees. Among other important documents for a credit institution are those that confirm the financial viability of the contractor (for example, extracts from settlementaccounts).

The supplier provides all the necessary documents to the financial institution, after which a decision is made there - to issue or not to issue a bank guarantee. True, not immediately: the law requires a procedure for verifying information about the supplier (this mainly concerns information about owners and accounting). This, according to some lawyers, is due to the need to identify figureheads.

Only a bank that is registered in a special list, as mentioned above, can issue a guarantee (it is also sometimes called the “Register of the Ministry of Finance” - bank guarantees as an institution of financial policy are largely regulated by this department). If a financial institution decides to issue a guarantee, then along with the documents, the bank also provides an extract from the state register. This completely eliminates the issuance of fake documents.

Before the Registry

To comply with the requirements of the public procurement law, many organizations claiming to award contracts bought fake government guarantees. This was done in a variety of ways, ranging from calling on brokers' ads on the Internet to using personal contacts with bankers.

Suppliers, of course, won in price - the cost of issuing very similar to real, but still fake financial documents was many times lower than on the legal terms of banks. If there was a situation where the supplierreally could not (or deliberately ceased) to fulfill its obligations under the contract with the state customer, then there was no one to compensate for the losses of the budget. Banks did not recognize their obligations for payments, since the documents were not real, or drawn up, from a legal point of view, incorrectly, and therefore were not valid.

Illegal actions with bank guarantees were committed by a variety of subjects - brokers, bankers themselves. They issued fake documents to suppliers on behalf of the financial institution, which itself was not aware of this and did not record the existence of guarantees in its registries. Some organizations practiced issuing so-called "gray" varieties of fake guarantees - when the management of a financial institution was aware of such transactions, however, did not put funds on the balance sheet in case the supplier failed to fulfill its obligations.

Market reaction

A number of analysts believe that the bank guarantee register is useful in that it allows you to deal with suppliers without much fear. Financial institutions themselves have also shown enthusiasm. When the regulatory register of bank guarantees 44 FZ came into force, several hundred banks registered in the relevant databases in order to be able to participate in public procurement on legal grounds.

Analysts believe that entire sectors of the economy invested by the state, in particular the construction sector, could feel more confident. There were often cases when contractors,having received budget investments, they were not able to fully fulfill their obligations under contracts. Now this probability, experts believe, is minimized.

Efficiency of guarantees within the registry

The unified register of bank guarantees appeared in Russia in April 2014. By that time, as many participants in the public procurement market admitted, the frequency of counterfeit guarantees, as we have already said above, was going through the roof. But since the introduction of the register, many banks have ceased to deal with this phenomenon at all, others have stated that the number of fake obligations has decreased significantly. Experts note that a large number of market players were looking forward to the adoption of the relevant amendments to the existing Federal Law "On the contract system of public procurement."

In the field of public procurement, such a financial instrument as a bank guarantee is very popular. When signing a contract for the supply of goods, services, works, this document serves as a guarantee of the fact that the contractor (supplier) will strictly and on time fulfill the obligations assumed. In this case, the guarantor is the bank that issues this document at the request of the contractor and provides it to the state customer.

According to the observation of a number of analysts, the demand for legal papers from banks increased, market participants accepted the register of bank guarantees with a bang. Where can I see data about a particular bank or supplier? This can be done on the public procurement website (zakupki.gov.ru).

Principles of working with the registry

Reconciliation of information on guarantees (the one provided by the supplier and the one indicated in the register) is carried out by the state customer. If there are significant discrepancies or the supplier has provided completely different data, the public customer undertakes not to deal with such a partner. In turn, the supplier is entered into another list containing information about unscrupulous market participants. The register of issued bank guarantees is available, as mentioned above, on the public procurement website.