Nominal account for the marketplace

For many people, including employees of financial institutions, the concept of "nominal account" is still associated with something illegal. Some are sure that such a service is needed for cashing out funds. In fact, nominal accounts are required for many marketing tasks. One of them is the organization of the marketplace. These large platforms bring together a huge number of product groups and sellers. When making purchases, users can combine products from different suppliers into one order. The ability to order everything and immediately makes marketplaces demanded by consumers.

Unlike conventional online stores, marketplaces collect orders from buyers and accept payments for goods to their transit account, after which the funds are transferred to the seller of the goods.

What is a nominal account?

This concept appeared in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in 2013. The peculiarity of a nominal account is that it is used to carry out transactions with money that does not belong to the owner of the account, but to another person. He is called the beneficiary. An agreement for opening a nominal account can be concluded with and without the participation of the beneficiary.

If we talk about the marketplace, then the nominal account for the owner of the trading platform looks the same as the settlement account, but the funds belong to other persons. In this case, we are talking about payments that came from buyers for goods purchased on the site. The beneficiaries are sellers who actually owned the goods before they were sold through the marketplace. Also, the beneficiaries of the nominal account can be investors, borrowers who interact through the investment platform. The law allows the opening of one or more nominal accounts to be used for different categories of beneficiaries.

Why do you need a nominal account, how does it work?

The specificity of a nominal account is that only its owner can manage a nominal account. Despite the fact that the money belongs to the beneficiaries, they cannot personally track the movement of the account and have access to it. The money is kept in a nominal account until the conditions that are agreed upon by the parties under the agreement are met. In fact, the owner of the electronic site, on behalf of the beneficiaries, accepts funds and performs financial transactions.

A nominal account has many advantages. Among them:

1. Flexibility allowing the parties to the transaction to choose the most convenient form of interaction and contractual model for them.
2. Decrease in transaction delays.
3. Ability to withhold platform commission.
4. A nominal account cannot be frozen, seized on the debts of a trading or investment platform.
5. The money does not pass through the account of the marketplace or investment platform, which reduces the tax burden.
6. Investors can track the movement of funds from the account.

When is the opening of a nominal account a mandatory procedure? 

Since July last year, a new law on crowdfunding came into force, according to which the owners of investment platforms undertake to open nominal accounts for crediting funds belonging to clients using financial services.

Also, the law prescribes a list of transactions that can be performed through a nominal account of a crowdfunding platform. Among them:

• transfer of commission to the operator of the crowdfunding platform;
• transfer of funds to the settlement accounts of investors;
• transfer of investors' money to the accounts of the initiators of investment proposals;
• return to investors of funds and interest to borrowers as part of the investment proposal.

Investors have the opportunity to control the movement of funds on the account, since the law obliges the operator of the investment platform to report for each transaction carried out no later than one business day.

There are other options for using a nominal account. For example, if the platform provides intermediary services to find contractors to fulfill an order, then customers can transfer funds through a nominal account. In the future, as the work is completed by the contractor and its acceptance by the client, the money will be credited to the account of the contractor. A similar business model is suitable for online trading. The buyer credits the money to a nominal account, and after confirming receipt of the goods, they are sent to the seller's account.

From all of the above, it follows that opening a nominal account really helps to optimize business processes, to protect the interests of all parties to the transaction. Banks that provide such services have developed ready-made solutions for different business models. The client is provided with a complete set of financial instruments necessary for his work.

Having trouble opening a nominee account for the marketplace? Contact A4 Law firm - we will answer any of your questions.