How to check a bank guarantee under 44-FZ and 223-FZ

What is and why is the BG registry needed?

Until mid-2021, anyone had the opportunity to check a bank guarantee in the register of bank guarantees located on the official website of the EIS Procurement. Currently, the information contained therein is available exclusively to customers and banks.

The need to create such a federal database is beyond doubt. It is explained by the large number of government procurements being carried out, which is steadily growing every year, as well as the appearance of scammers on the market offering fictitious bank guarantees.

The formation of the register made it possible to quickly solve this problem and restore order with the issuance of financial guarantees. After this, it was decided to close the information to ordinary users, since if used correctly, it provided them with information that could be classified as a trade secret.

How to check a bank guarantee under 44-FZ

Today, there are several ways to check the guarantee received from the bank. Let's look at the most popular and effective ones.

Registry check

The first and most obvious way to verify the received financial guarantee still involves contacting the register of bank guarantees under No. 44-FZ. Despite limited access to the database, with some effort it is still possible to obtain it, for example, by contacting a partner bank. Such institutions receive the necessary information without any problems.

Sending a request to the guarantor bank

An alternative verification option involves sending an official request to the guarantor bank that issued the guarantee. It must indicate the details of the document, including the number, TIN of the beneficiary and the principal. In relation to government procurement under No. 44-FZ, the customer is the first, and the supplier or contractor is the second.

Current legislation obliges the bank to provide an extract from the bank register within one business day. It must include the following information:

• number of the register entry of the bank guarantee and the date of its placement in the register;
• details of all participants in the financial transaction (name, tax identification number, legal address), including the guarantor, beneficiary and principal;
• government procurement code;
• conditions for providing BG (duration, amount, etc.).

Sending a request to the Treasury

The scheme for checking a bank's financial guarantee described above is suitable for open procurement. If we are talking about closed tenders, it is necessary to contact not the guarantor, but the Federal Treasury. The easiest way to do this is provided by the official website of the department, which contains a special request form that looks like this. To send an application to the FC, you need to sign a document with a qualified digital signature. You can download the form in a special section of one of the territorial bodies of the FC.

Bank guarantor

One of the mandatory conditions for issuing a bank guarantee within the framework of government procurement under No. 44-FZ is the inclusion of the bank in the list of credit institutions accredited by the Ministry of Finance. The latter is also posted on the official website of the federal department, and the information is freely available. All that is required from the inspector is to verify the data specified on the Internet resource and directly in the bank guarantee.

Warranty agreement

Another basic verification criterion is the compliance of the BG agreement with the rules of execution established at the legislative level. The first of these is drafting it on the letterhead of the guarantor bank. The second - already mentioned above - is the complete identity of the details on the document and in the list of the Ministry of Finance. It is also necessary to check the conditions and validity period of the financial guarantee.

BG conditions

There are increased requirements for financial guarantees within the framework of public procurement. They are expressed in several standard and additional conditions that must be present in the text of the document. These include:

• irrevocable nature of the bank's guarantee obligations;
• guarantee amount;
• obligations on the part of the principal, the fulfillment of which is ensured by the BG;
• additional obligations of the bank to pay the beneficiary 0.1% of the BG amount in the form of a penalty, which is accrued per day of delay;
• instructions on the rules for determining the date of fulfillment of the guarantor’s obligations at the time the money arrives in the beneficiary’s current account;
• validity period of the BG;
• conditions for the bank to have an obligation to pay off the guarantee.

An important additional condition is the placement in the text of the document of a list of documents provided by the beneficiary to the bank simultaneously with the request for payment. Failure to comply with any of the above requirements may become grounds for invalidating the bank guarantee.

Validity period of the bank guarantee

One of the key points of the financial guarantee deserves special consideration – the validity period of the BG. It is strictly regulated by the provisions of No. 44-FZ and is determined by the type of warranty:

• if we are talking about securing an application for participation in an auction, the period should be 2 months longer than the time for submitting applications;
• when securing a government contract, the BG must be at least a month longer than the period for fulfilling obligations under it;
• when the bank guarantees the quality of the goods supplied or the work performed, the BG must be valid for at least a month longer than the guarantee obligations specified in the contract.

Issuing a guarantee for a shorter period means failure to comply with legal requirements. The result is a justified rejection of the document by the decision of the customer conducting the public procurement.

Latest revision of the list

You can view the register of banks in a convenient form below. The list is updated automatically online from the official website of the Ministry of Finance. The last check was recorded on December 14, 2021.

Total 186 banks

If you think that the functioning of the service could be improved, please let us know via the contact form. We will try to take this into account.

The trend shows that the list of accredited banks is becoming smaller over time. The movement towards reduction is caused by the fact that the conditions for authorized banks are becoming tougher every year.

This fact once again proves that it is advisable for suppliers who actively participate in tenders and use the guarantees of 44-FZ to refer to the list as often as possible.

How to check BG according to 223-FZ

Provisions No. 223-FZ regulate procurements carried out by companies and corporations with state participation in ownership. Such tender procedures are regulated less strictly than government procurement, but must also comply with certain rules. One of them is the provision of security for the obligations of the bidder in the form of a bank guarantee. The authenticity of the latter is verified by two key criteria - the guarantor bank and the terms of the financial guarantee. They become even more relevant if we consider that a federal register of bank guarantees under No. 223-FZ is not maintained.

Bank guarantor

The list of banks that have the right to provide financial statements within the framework of procurement procedures under No. 223-FZ is not limited. But some state corporations acting as customers, for example, Russian Railways or Gazprom, accept guarantees only from financial organizations specially accredited by them. This possibility is allowed by the provisions of No. 223-FZ. A mandatory additional requirement for the bank is the presence of a valid license issued by the market regulator - the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

Bank guarantee agreement

The requirements for a bank guarantee agreement under No. 223-FZ are similar to those under No. 44-FZ, although they are somewhat more loyal to the guarantor. The first and main condition is registration on the letterhead of a credit institution. The conditions and validity period of the BG are checked separately.

Bank guarantee conditions

The mandatory conditions of a guarantee for the principal’s obligations within the framework of procurement under No. 223-FZ include the following:

• date and title of the document;
• the name of the participants in the financial transaction - guarantor, beneficiary, principal - indicating the details;
• the amount of the guarantee or the rules for calculating it;
• an obligation the fulfillment of which is guaranteed by the bank;
• conditions for the obligation to pay the guarantee amount.

The current edition of No. 223-FZ gives customers the right to supplement the list of mandatory conditions with additional ones at their own discretion. Therefore, often the list of requirements for BG coincides with those provided for by the provisions of No. 44-FZ.

Validity period of the bank guarantee

The minimum duration of the guarantor bank's obligations is set by the customer. Usually it is guided by the requirements of No. 44-FZ, which become mandatory when included in the tender documentation.

Information displayed in the state register

The data that the bank must provide for inclusion in the state register is strictly regulated by Federal Law 44-FZ “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, services to meet state and municipal needs.” It provides for displaying the following information and documents in the register:

• information about the financial institution that issued the guarantee: name, address, individual taxpayer number;
• information about the procurement participant (principal): name, address, individual taxpayer number;
• the guarantee amount that the bank is obliged to pay to the beneficiary in the event of failure by the principal to fulfill its obligations;
• validity period of the issued document;
• a copy of the issued guarantee (with the exception of BGs included in the closed list);
• other information and copies of documents, the provision of which is regulated by the Government of the Russian Federation.

The main signs of an invalid BG

For a long time, there were many fictitious bank guarantees on the Russian financial market. Today this problem has become much less pressing, but the possibility of receiving an invalid guarantee cannot be completely excluded. Therefore, it is advisable to always check the BG for authenticity. In this sense, it is useful to know the three main signs that cast doubt on the validity of a bank guarantee.

Debts of the guarantor organization

The first and main problem is the unstable financial position of the banking institution. Not all domestic banks operate successfully and efficiently, which is confirmed by the annual revocation of a considerable number of banking licenses by the market regulator.

Therefore, before starting cooperation on issuing a guarantee, it makes sense to study the financial statements of the credit institution, the list of legal proceedings in which it is involved, as well as look at its ratings on thematic sites and other similar information. This approach will allow you to avoid business relationships with a counterparty with a dubious reputation.

Low cost bank guarantee

Dumping prices for services provided is another obvious and very clear indicator of the bank’s unstable financial position. The standard commission for issuing a bank guarantee is 5-10%. Large and well-known banks offer some discount for regular customers, reducing the rate to 3-4% or even 2%.

But such concessions must be justified by an interest in further mutually beneficial cooperation, and not by the desire to get a client in any way in order to at least slightly improve the financial situation. The need to carefully study the details where the commission payment is transferred deserves special mention. They must belong to the guarantor bank, and not to a third party used to withdraw the assets of a problem credit institution.

A small list of required documents

In fact, a bank guarantee is a service similar to lending, albeit in a somewhat simplified form and without unnecessary formalities. Therefore, the bank must check the potential client, for which a standard set of documents is requested in such situations. It includes:

• IP passport or LLC constituent documentation;
• registration documents;
• data and passport details of the founders of the legal entity;
• tax and accounting reporting for at least one, and sometimes two or three years;
• certificates of absence of debts on taxes and mandatory fees;
• other documents, the list of which is determined by the internal regulations of the bank.

If a request for the provision of the listed documentation has not been received, and the banking institution is ready to issue a guarantee, this becomes a serious signal about the dubious value of such a guarantee. There is a high probability that the document will be invalidated.

Participants in the process

There are three parties involved in a bank guarantee: the principal, the beneficiary and the guarantor.

Principal

- the one who asks the bank for a guarantee and pays money to receive it. For example, a construction company won a tender to build a university building. When concluding a contract, she must provide a guarantee that she will complete the work efficiently and on time. She buys such a guarantee from the bank and becomes the principal.

Beneficiary

- the one who will receive money from the bank if the principal does not fulfill his obligations. In our example, this is a university. In government procurement, the beneficiary is always the customer. But sometimes it can also be a seller, contractor and executor.

For example, a contractor and a customer entered into an agreement to renovate an office. But the buyer does not have the money to pay for the work right away, and he promises to pay three months after the repairs are completed. The contractor demanded a bank guarantee - if after three months the customer is unable to pay for the work, the contractor will receive money from the bank. In this case, the contractor is the beneficiary.

Guarantee

- the one who issues a bank guarantee, that is, a bank or other commercial organization that gives a written undertaking to pay the beneficiary if the principal fails to fulfill his obligations. In government procurement, only a bank can be a guarantor; in commercial procurement, any commercial organization can be a guarantor.

FAQ

Why is a bank guarantee provided as part of procurements under No. 44-FZ and No. 223-FZ?

A bank guarantee is provided by a government procurement participant for one of two purposes: the first is to secure the application (required for all potential suppliers and performers), the second is to secure obligations to fulfill the government contract (required only by the winner of the electronic auction).

How to find out the registration number of a bank guarantee?

To do this, you must submit an official request either to the bank that issued the guarantee or to the Federal Treasury. The first option is used for open procurement, the second - for closed bidding.

What are the main ways to verify the authenticity of a financial guarantee?

The simplest and most reliable method of verification involves contacting the bank that issued the guarantee. Alternative options include careful study of the terms of the guarantee, including the availability of all necessary details and information, as well as the correct validity period of the document.

How the guarantee works

By concluding an agreement with the guarantor bank, the principal undertakes obligations for the conscientious execution of the contract, and the beneficiary receives confidence that he will receive high-quality work or monetary compensation for poor-quality work.

If the principal fails to fulfill the obligation, the beneficiary will require the bank to pay the guarantee. To do this, you need to send a request to the bank to make a payment and attach to it the documents specified in the guarantee, for example, a debt calculation and a power of attorney.

The bank has no right to refuse to pay the guarantee, even if the obligation has been fulfilled.

Having received a request for payment of a guarantee, the bank is obliged to immediately notify the principal about this and give him a copy of the request and the documents attached to it.

The bank does not care whether the principal actually failed to fulfill his obligations. The main thing is that the documents are drawn up correctly. For example, a bank may refuse to pay if the beneficiary has not signed the debt settlement.

The principal is obliged to reimburse the bank for the amounts paid to the beneficiary under the guarantee. But if the bank paid for the guarantee with an incomplete set of documents, then the principal may not reimburse his expenses.

The following situation may occur: the beneficiary demands payment of the guarantee, although the principal has fulfilled his obligation. The bank paid the guarantee and received compensation from the principal. In this case, the principal may require the beneficiary to reimburse him for this amount.