Russia sets up central securities depository

By Andrei Skvarsky.

The National Settlement Depository, part of Moscow’s Micex-RTS stock exchange, has been granted the status of Russia’s central securities depository (CSD).

“Foreign central depositories will now be able to open nominee accounts with Russia’s CSD,” Micex-RTS said in a statement.

Russian state and corporate bonds will have links to international central securities depositories by the end of 2012.

The National Settlement Depository is expected to meet the requirements of Rule 17f-7 of the US Investment Company Act of 1940, which means US funds will be allowed to invest directly in Russian securities.

The National Settlement Depository is the depository of Micex, which completed a merger with peer exchange RTS in December 2011, creating Moscow Exchange Group.

Since then, the depository “has merged the operations of RTS’s legacy depository, DCC, into its own”, the Micex-RTS statement said.

Over time, the CSD is expected to enhance liquidity and lower settlement costs, while ensuring that all market participants operate on the same post-trading platform,” the Micex-RTS statement said.

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