OREANDA-NEWS  On 02 June was announced, that the Sverdlovsk Regional Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (OFAS Russia) found that "AK Bars" Bank OJSC and "Rossia" Open Share-Holding Insurance Company, in the persons of their Yekaterinburg branches, violated Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", by entering into an agreement and engaging in concerted actions to perform the agreement.

First, the agreement between "AK Bars" Bank OJSC and "Rossia" Open Share-Holding Insurance Company imposes unfavorable credit and insurance conditions upon the borrowers (persons insuring vehicles), making it impossible to change the beneficiary on a notification basis.

Second, the agrement between "AK Bars" Bank OJSC and "Rossia" Open Share-Holding Insurance Company prevents entry of insurance companies to the market of insurance services by defining the criteria for selecting insurance organisations, specified in Clause 3.1.10 of the Agreement, and informing market participants about the criteria by publishing them at the Bank's web-site.

The Sverdlovsk OFAS Russia issued a determination to "AK Bars" Bank OJSC requesting the bank to amend the criteria for selecting insurance organisations, which are published at the Bank's web site, in compliance with the requirements to admissibility of the agreements between credit and insurance organisations, approved by No.386 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 30th April 2009.

The determination must be executed by 1st July 2009.