MOSCOW, July 23 The State Duma adopted in the second and third readings a law aimed at countering financial pyramids.
The need to adopt the law is due to the fact that the problem of financial pyramids in the country is still relevant, one of its authors, Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council Nikolai Zhuravlev, previously explained. This has a negative impact on the Russian financial market, may lead to the loss of funds for a significant part of the population, and also undermines citizens’ confidence in financial instruments, he emphasized. 
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To suppress the illegal attraction of investments from individuals, the document amends the laws “On consumer cooperation (consumer societies, their unions) in the Russian Federation” and “On the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of investors in the securities market.”
Now consumer societies have the right to raise funds from shareholders and other persons. The new law allows such companies to raise borrowed funds only from shareholders and legal entities that are not shareholders. But this restriction will not apply to consumer societies participating in the experiment on partner financing (Islamic banking), which has been carried out in Bashkiria, Dagestan, Tatarstan and Chechnya since September 2023. 
The law limits the ability to attract investment from citizens. According to accepted standards, this can be done by organizations supervised by the Central Bank — these are banks, financial, insurance companies, and so on.
And if the company is not under the supervision of a regulator, it will be able to attract funds from individuals only within the framework of the legislation on the securities market, investment funds and mortgage securities. That is, such companies will have to offer investors shares, bonds and other securities specified by law in exchange for their funds.
These restrictions do not apply to relations related to the issue and circulation of digital rights, transactions using financial and investment platforms.
The law must come into force on the date of official publication.