LEGAL CAPACITY OF NON-COMMERCIAL ORGANISATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF NOVELTIES OF THE FEDERAL LEGISLATION ON PAYMENT ACCEPTANCE OPERATORS: A CONSCIOUS ASSUMPTION OR A MISTAKE IN LEGAL TECHNIQUE

Abstract

In light of the reform of the legislation on payment acceptance operators and the adoption of the Bank of Russia's by-laws related to the novelties, there is a possibility of ambiguous interpretation of the provisions of federal legislation regarding the possibility of a non-commercial organisation to perform the functions of a payment acceptance operator. The norms of federal legislation point to the implementation of payment acceptance activities and the possibility of obtaining the status of a payment acceptance operator by "legal entities". In this connection, in the absence of a direct indication in the federal legislation on the correlation between the status of a non-profit organisation and the possibility of carrying out the activities of an operator for the acceptance of payments, under a literal interpretation of the provisions of the legislation it should be recognised that it is possible for a non-profit organisation to obtain the status of an operator for the acceptance of payments. However, the very construction of a non-profit organisation that carries out activities to accept payments seems inexpedient from the point of view of the economic component of the activities of such an organisation, which raises additional doubts about possible options for interpreting the provisions of federal legislation. The final conclusion about the possibility of a non-profit organisation to carry out activities to accept payments is largely related to the need to determine their legal capacity, as defined by the legislation on non-profit organisations, namely in determining the permitted types of activities. As a result of the analysis of legal capacity of non-commercial organisations, the author concludes that the uncertainty of the legislation, even if it was not a conscious decision of the legislator, can potentially be used to allow non-commercial organisations to carry out payment acceptance activities while improving a number of administrative aspects.