According to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, a draft agreement on bilateral efforts to implement the American Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, is to be presented to the government as early as on January 20, 2013. The authorization to implement the requirements of FATCA as part of Russian internal law was given during a meeting addressing issues in the banking system that Dmitry Medvedev organized on November 28, 2013.

In November, the Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov indicated that discussions on the FATCA issue will continue in early 2014 and that an agreement is to be finalized no earlier than the middle of 2014.

Following July 1, 2014, banks in Russia would be required to ascertain the status of foreign financial institutions in all of their regular (non-trade) banking operations with payments made in U.S. dollars.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act imposes additional conditions on financial reports of banking institutions outside of the United States and of various intermediary organizations that generate revenue from sources within the U.S. In particular, the foreign banks must disclose to American taxing authorities the balances held in foreign accounts of U.S. persons. Those account holders withholding their consent from participating in the disclosure program become subject to a 30-percent withholding tax.