OREANDA-NEWS. July 17, 2014. A joint Commission of the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation found that “Rusfinance Bank” Ltd. and “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd. violated Part 4 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The case against credit organizations was initiated upon the findings of a scheduled on-site inspection of “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd.

The inspection exposed that “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd. did not have a license for attracting the funds of physical persons in deposits. Due to this and some other reasons, it concluded a contract with “Rusfinance Bank” Ltd., on the basis of which the latter renders to its counteragent the services for opening and managing accounts of physical persons that decided to take advantage of the auto loan services of “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd.

Executing the contract, “Rusfinance Bank” Ltd. also analyses on a fee basis applications and questionnaires filled in for auto loans by potential borrowers of “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd., verifies their credibility, stores credit folders of each partner’s borrower and services loans granted by the partner.

In the version in force at the time of completing the inspection, the contract provided for “Rusfinance Bank” Ltd. refusing to use information about physical persons, obtained the course of exercising such functions, to offer them auto loans with the contract validity period as well as upon its termination.

Premised on the content of the contract, the restriction was not applied to other services not related to automobiles, in particular, no-purpose loans and credit cards.

As “Rusfinance Bank” Ltd. and “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd. are participants of the auto loan market, the Commission concluded that by entering into a contact on such conditions “Rusfinance Bank” Ltd. effectively refused to undertake particular independent actions on this market – refused to compete with “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd. for the clients attracted by the bank.

FAS found that “Rusfinance Bank” Ltd. and “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd. violated Part 4 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

At the time of making a decision, the violation was eliminated so determinations to the violators were not issued.

The case against “Rusfinance Bank” Ltd. and “Bank PSA Finance RUS” Ltd. is not a precedent. FAS has already investigated such cases in 2009 and 2013 with regard to similar agreements between “URALSIB” OJSC with “Toyota Banka” CJSC and “Volkswagen Bank RUS” Ltd. and recognized violations.

Part 4 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits other agreements between economic entities if established that such agreements lead or can lead to restricted competition.

Clause 17 Article 4 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” specifies that refusals of economic entities, which are not members of the same group of persons, from independent actions on the market, is a sign of restricted competition.