11.02.21, InvestPro Online: brief overview

On February 11, the InvestPro Online conference was held, where 5 international speakers and more than 250 spectators took part.

The following topics were discussed at the conference:

Compliance of a foreign bank for offshore: how to get through it with minimum losses and within the shortest possible time. - Ivan Tikhonenok, Head of Banking Group at Amond & Smith;

Opening an account for a non-resident in a Ukrainian bank: practical aspects and unique opportunities. Risk assessment. - Natalia Dotsenko-Belous, Attorney at Transactional Law Boutique;

How to open and maintain a corporate savings account. - MoraBanc;

Tax and currency control regulations of cryptocurrency in Russia. - Evgeniya Chizhevskaya, Head of Business Development & Marketing at ALTHAUS Private Tax;

Protected investment – high yield with minimum risks. - Sergey Bogatyrev, Senior Counsellor at BEST BUSINESS SOLUTIONS.

Ivan Tikhonenok, Head of Banking Group at Amond & Smith, spoke about the compliance process of a foreign bank and how to minimize losses. According to Ivan, there are no methods to guarantee compliance. However, risks can be minimized and the chances of success can be increased.

The speaker also named the reasons for the compliance:

- Compliance with legal requirements;

- Compliance with industry standards;

- Anti-corruption and fraud;

- Corporate ethics;

- Security.

The compliance pyramid consists of 3 parts:

1st level - international organizations: FATF, IMF, Basel and Wolfsberg group;

2nd level - Central Banks of various countries of the world;

3rd level - compliance department of the bank.

Ivan spoke about the principle of the bank’s compliance department:

CDD - Customer Due Diligence;

EDD - Enhanced Due Diligence;

KYCC - Know Your Customer's Customer.

What the bank’s compliance officers look at:

- the nature and basis of the business;

- origin of funds;

- identification of the beneficiary;

- the purpose of creating an account;

- statutory documents of the client company;

- negative references in the media.

Natalia Dotsenko-Belous, Attorney at Transactional Law Boutique, spoke about opening an account for a non-resident in a Ukrainian bank, as well as about the aspects and possibilities of this process.

Natalia spoke about opening an account for a non-resident, in particular for offshore companies. According to the speaker, since 2019, the laws of Ukraine have provided legal opportunities for this. Thanks to changes in the law of Ukraine, any non-resident, regardless of jurisdiction, can open an account in  a Ukrainian bank.

According to Natalia, the procedure comes down to two stages:

The first stage is mandatory tax registration;

The second stage is opening a bank account.

It should be noted that Ukraine is not on the black or gray lists in the register of banks.

Stage 1 - registration. According to the speaker, this process is formal. The tax authority is provided with a package of apostilled and legalized notarized translations of corporate documents. The tax authorities do not bother examining these documents, and pay more attention to the fact of their notarization of translations. Registration takes 3 business days. Additional opportunities for registration will appear from January 1, 2022, due to changes in laws that will allow a non-resident not only to register for a bank account, but also to change its tax residency. This, in turn, opens up the opportunity to use those tax preferences that are provided by the tax legislation of Ukraine.

The second stage is to apply to the bank with a package of corporate documents, and the time frame for the process does not exceed one month. Among all the processes, it is worth highlighting one aspect - during compliance, Ukrainian banks do not ask for the source of the origin of funds.

Natalia spoke about the convenience of banking operations after opening an account. Accounts are opened immediately in multi-currency - there are no currency restrictions, as well as delays during transactions.

Evgeniya Chizhevskaya, Head of Business Development & Marketing at ALTHAUS Private Tax, spoke about the tax and currency regulation of crypto assets in the Russian Federation.

Evgenia said that cryptocurrencies are attractive because of the absence of inflation and the absence of the influence of specific states.

According to the speaker, in different countries there are various approaches to the legal qualification of cryptocurrency:

- USA: investment contracts;

- Australia: cryptocurrency is treated as a commodity for tax purposes;

- Japan: can be used in mutual settlements;

- Germany: banks are allowed to hold funds in cryptocurrency.

As for the regulation of cryptoassets in the Russian Federation, from 01.01.2021 the Federal Law of 31.07.2020 is in force: “On digital financial assets, digital currency and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation”.

Digital currency is recognized as property only for the purposes of the following Federal laws:

- “On Counteracting Legalization (Laundering) of Criminally Obtained Incomes and Financing of Terrorism”;

- “On insolvency (bankruptcy)”;

- “On enforcement proceedings”;

- “On combating corruption”.

What is digital currency according to the legislation of the Russian Federation:

- A set of electronic data (digital code or designation);

- Can be accepted as a means of payment;

- It is not a monetary unit of the Russian Federation, a foreign state and (or) an international monetary or unit of account.

The use of digital currency in Russia to pay for goods and services is prohibited. In particular, when providing mining services, it is necessary to ensure the receipt of remuneration in the currency of the Russian Federation or a foreign state.

The most common transactions with cryptoassets, which are especially important from a tax point of view:

Implementation:

- Exchange of virtual currency for fiat currency;

- Exchange virtual currency for other virtual currencies or cryptoassets.

ICO:

- Emission of a new token in exchange for virtual currency;

- Emission of a new token in exchange for fiat currency;

- Mainly associated with the release of utility tokens.

Mining:

- Verification of transactions of virtual currencies;

- Adding transactions to the blockchain-based ledger;

- The miner is entitled to a reward.

Airdrops:

- Free distribution of tokens;

- Advertising purpose;

- The goal of increasing the liquidity of the token at the initial stages of the project.

Sergey Bogatyrev, Senior Counsellor at BEST BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, spoke about the benefits of protected investments.

Protected investments are instruments that combine high returns with almost complete elimination of investment risks. Protected investment instruments are similar to the main asset classes (bonds, real estate, stocks). The profitability of protective investment instruments is comparable to that of analogues.

All protected tools are based on the WIN-WIN principles. It is an interaction which all participants can profit from. The principle allows you to plan future income with a probability close to 100%. BEST BUSINESS SOLUTIONS is looking for the best tools for implementation among all the tools of the WIN-WIN strategy.

Risk elimination is achieved through the use of economic mechanisms:

- high demand with insufficient supply;

- mutual interest of the parties (WIN-WIN tools);

- collateral for debt instruments;

- orientation to the basic needs of people;

- use of global economic trends.

Speaker from MoraBanc, spoke about the processes of opening and maintaining a corporate savings account. The speaker told some basic information about Morabanc, as well as about the banks’ services. The banks’ assets are 7.5 billion euros, and offices are located in Andorra, Switzerland, the United States and Spain.

Corporate accounts are the most popular type of services provided by this bank. According to the speaker, active companies use MoraBanc services, and the most common transactions are payments from clients, transfers of their own funds, receipt of funds from the company's beneficiaries, dividends to the beneficiary, and operating expenses. However, the company does not support the loan service.

According to the speaker, the bank’s compliance department is checked to open an account. However, after opening an account, the Compliance Department becomes a kind of defender of the client’s account, when questions arise from correspondent banks.

More detailed information about the event is available by the link:

https://bosco-conference.com/en/archive-2021/investpro-online-11-february-2021

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