MOSCOW, July 24 (RAPSI) – The lower house of Russian parliament adopted an initiative on crowdfunding regulation in a final third reading on Wednesday.

The draft law was introduced into the State Duma in March 2018 by a group of lawmakers and senators.

The bill determines legal basis of the activities of investment platform operators.  Thus, only communities created in accordance with Russian legislation and added by the Central Bank to the investment platform operator register may act as the investment raising organizers. However, both individuals and legal entities may take on the role of investors.

The draft law sets such a sort of securities as a digital certificate. Investment with the use of the investment platform would be performed by lending; acquisition of utilitarian digital rights; purchase of equity securities placed with the use of these platforms excluding securities of banks and non-bank institutions, structural bods and securities designed for sophisticated investors.

The Bank of Russia would be authorized to monitor the compliance with the legislative requirements by investment platform operators and to check their activities.

Moreover, the legislative proposal fixes special features of investment by individuals. Thus, unsophisticated investors would be able to invest more than 600,000 rubles ($9,500) within a calendar year in the framework of all investment platforms in Russia.

If signed into law, the document becomes effective on January 2020.