Market infrastructure - Russia
Institutions and organisation
Stock Exchanges and related organisations
There are several regional exchanges in Russia. The main one is:
Open Joint Stock Company "Moscow Exchange MICEX-RTS" (Moscow Exchange)
OJSC "Moscow Exchange MICEX-RTS" was formed on 19 December 2011, following the merger of the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) and the Russia Trading System (RTS).
The Moscow Exchange and MICEX Stock Exchange act as organisers of trading in the Group. The National Settlement Depository is a non-banking credit organisation that provides settlement of trades, depository and trade repository services. The National Clearing Centre is the Group’s clearing house.
The Moscow Exchange provides local and international investors, professional participants of the financial market and their clients opportunities for trading stocks, bonds, fund units, derivatives, currencies, government securities and commodities.
Other regional exchanges include, the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange.
Although the share of regional stock exchanges in the total volume of trades remained very low, they mainly perform representative functions of Moscow Exchange in a real time regime in regions with different time zones.
CSD
National Settlement Depository (NSD)
The NSD provides depository services related to on-exchange and OTC transactions with all types of debt and equity securities of Russian issuers and provides settlement services to participants in the financial markets of the Russian Federation.
The NSD provides storage for global certificates and depository services for corporate, sub-federal and municipal bond issues. It services transactions conducted in the federal bond and Bank of Russia bond markets, as well as in the corporate and regional bond markets. It also services transactions with equities, unit investment trust units and securities of foreign issuers.
The NSD is Russia’s national numbering agency and the substitute numbering agency for the CIS, authorised to assign international ISIN and CFI codes.
Registrars
The activity of the registrar falls under mandatory licensing requirements of the FMS. It is an exclusive type of activity and cannot be combined with any other activity in the securities market. The registrar is not limited in the number of registers it can maintain and the number of issuers it can service, however each issuer can employ only one registrar to maintain its register.
The registrar is obliged to process transfer of securities between accounts only on written transfer instruction (Transfer Order) executed by the account owner who is delivering such securities. The registrar is obliged to process transfer of ownership title within three business days from the date of receipt of the Transfer Order.
Currently there are 40 registrars spread within Russia from Moscow to the Far East.
Regulatory structure
Bank of Russia
According to Russian Federation legislation, on 1 September 2013, Bank of Russia became the country’s financial market mega regulator due to the transfer of the number of functions previously performed by the Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS). Bank of Russia performs supervisory and regulatory functions on financial markets and over activity of credit organisations of Russia, including appropriate licensing functions.
In addition to the credit organisations supervision, the function of a single regulator consists of monitoring of non-banking financial institutions, including insurance companies, asset management companies, pension funds, brokers and exchange intermediaries as well as microfinance institutions, etc.
The law requires that the Bank of Russia stops being a shareholder of Moscow Exchange by the end of 2015. Currently the Bank of Russia is one of the major shareholders (13.166%) and it chairs the Supervisory Board of the Exchange. The requirement to exit the capital of the Moscow Exchange descends from the need to eliminate a potential conflict of interest and a risk of ineligible overruling.
Federal Anti-monopoly Services (FAS)
The FAS cooperates with Bank of Russia in fields of supervision and control of securities market and maintenance of competition between market participants.
Ministry of Finance
The Ministry of Finance is responsible for the registration process for government, municipal and regional bonds.
Professional associations with SRO status
- Professional Associations of Registrars, Transfer Agents and Depositories (PARTAD).
- National Stock Market associations (NFA).
- National League of Asset Managers (NLU).
- Russian National Association of Securities Market Participants (NAUFOR).
Risk management
Generally, risk mitigation is one of the major shortcomings of the Russian market. However, the local market infrastructure is active in further developing corporate governance and risk mitigation procedures in order to achieve alignment with Western standards. For example, in view of recent developments in CSD laws, the NSD has adopted a new risk mitigation policy with appropriate specifications and conditions.
In the meantime, the majority of non-resident transactions continue to be executed in local equities on a free of payment basis, even thought there is the option to execute against payment transactions in RUB and USD. Cash settlement occurs in hard currency offshore, where the main risks are managed unilaterally without dependence on the local market infrastructure.