Requirements to a financial company's website during obtainment of a license

Availability of own website is a necessary condition for the operations of a financial company in Ukraine starting from 2016. The licensing authority (namely, the National Commission for the State Regulation of Financial Services Markets) has specific requirements for it, which are listed in the law. Failure to follow them will result in refusal of license issuance.

The material will be useful for future licensees, as well as for those who are already engaged in activities related to the provision of financial services, since the obligation to have own webpage is also applicable to them. In the article, we will try to state requirements of the law in most comprehensive way and answer questions that may cause difficulties.

General and special requirements for information on the webpages of financial companies are established by the law. The former applies to all financial institutions. The latter is applicable to certain financial organizations, which will be listed further.

Legislative requirements (general)

The client has the right to get acquainted with information about activities of a financial institution. [1] A financial company is obliged to create conditions for such familiarization through a webpage on the Internet according to the rule. The requirement applies to both those who have already obtained a license (by 2016) for providing financial services and those who only intend to license their activities. Consequently, it is necessary to find out, what data need to be provided and how it will be accessed.

Financial companies have the following obligations [2]:

• have and maintain a website in its working condition;
• place established rules for the provision of financial services on the webpage;
• disclose information on their activities [3].

Accordingly, a webpage of a financial organization has to contain the following information:

1. a name, location of the institution, its individual tax code;
2. a list of services provided by the company;
3. regarding the members of the financial institution (their number, participation in the company's activities etc.);
4. permits and licenses, on the basis of which the institution carries out its activities;
5. reporting on its activities for a specific period;
6. decision on the liquidation of the financial company if such a procedure took place;
7. other information provided by financial legislation.

It is important to note that a financial company should also provide the following information on request of a client [4]:

• a list of all heads of the financial company. In case of separate subdivisions also their heads;
• a list of all services provided by the financial institution;
• established tariffs and prices of the corresponding services;
• number of shares held by members of the institution and a list of members, whose shares exceed 5%;
• other information in accordance with Ukrainian legislation.

In addition, institutions must place information on their work schedule on a website – working and weekend days, breaks and consultation hours.

Special requirements

Besides the general requirements established by the law on information, which has to be contained on a site, there are special ones. They apply to each financial company individually based on the direction of its activities. For instance, responsibilities of an administrator of a non-state pension fund include publication of information on net asset value of the fund, number of assets and their value, which is calculated as of the end of working day before the date of placement of the information on a day-to-day basis. Such information has to be open and accessible for usage [6].

That is, it's necessary to understand what services your company provides / is going to provide, such information has to be displayed on the webpage in accordance with the general requirements.

Importantly! Furthermore, the rules on the availability of own website apply to other legal entities involved in the provision of financial service in accordance with the law. However, at the same time, according to its current status, the entity is not a financial institution. To date, such institutions include leasing companies according to the law.

Webpage design

Legally established requirements for the operation of financial company’s site. These include the following provisions [5]:

• information should be placed in Ukrainian. In parallel, it is allowed to use another language;
• providing round-the-clock access to information, which is displayed on a website for anyone, who wants to visit it;
• information should be up to date;
• making it possible for users to search on a web page.

Summing up

Thus, summarizing the abovementioned, we say that a large number of laws and bylaws regulate issues regarding the requirements of own website financial organization. Such requirements are general, that is, for all financial institutions, and special ones, which are applied individually to legal entities. In any case, it is necessary to thoroughly study the normative base on the issue in order to avoid misunderstandings with the licensing authority.

Lawyers of law firm “Pravova dopomoga” keep up with all innovations concerning the activities of financial companies. You can get acquainted with information on the registration of a financial company at the following link.

Normative regulation

[1] - Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On Financial Services and State Regulation of Financial Services Markets" (hereinafter referred to as the Law);

[2] - Subsection 24 of the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine "On Approval of Licensing Conditions of Business Activities for the Provision of Financial Services (except for Professional Activities in the Securities Market)";

[3] - Section 4, 5 of Article 12-1 of the Law;

[4] - requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On Access to Public Information";

[5] - "Provisions on disclosure by financial institutions of information in a public information database on financial institutions and on websites (webpages) of financial institutions" approved by the Regulation of the National Commission for the State regulation of Financial Services Markets;