Legal Personality of the Bank of Russia: Vesting the Organization with Public Authority

The paper evaluates the legal status of the Bank of Russia through the analysis of administrative, civil, and specialized banking legislation, as well as drawing on research by leading legal scholars. The author emphasizes that the lender of last resort is recognized as a legal entity, incurring expenses from its own revenue and possessing the full triad of rights with respect to its property, which nevertheless is regarded as federal property. Characterizing the organizational and legal form of the mega regulator remains a relevant problem in academic literature, arising from the terminology employed in both constitutional provisions and Federal Law No. 86-FZ dated 10 July 2002, «On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia).» Over the course of longstanding debates, scholars have suggested that the primary bank of the first level may be classified as a non-profit organization, a state institution established for public benefit, or a commercial entity with a special legal status. At present, the Bank of Russia can reasonably be described according to the criteria defined in the literature for public law entities. The necessity for participation in civil turnover, in accordance with the objectives mandated by legislation for the national bank, must be effectively balanced with its role as an instrument of the Russian Federation’s monetary policy. Without pursuing profit as its primary goal, yet nonetheless engaging in certain aspects of entrepreneurial activity, the issuing bank is characterized by its competencies in the areas of control and supervision over financial markets, thereby exercising certain state-authority functions in the management of the banking system. The author concludes that the legal entity of the Bank of Russia, which resists classification under the established terminology of organizational and legal forms, takes a unique standing among organizations endowed with public powers.