Strategy update

International central securities depositories (ICSDs) Euroclear and Clearstream were granted complete access to the Russian securities market in 2014, thus expanding the range of international investors able to gain exposure to the Russian market.

The arrival of these two leading global post-trade service providers underscores the openness of Russia’s financial markets, and is testament to Moscow Exchange’s extensive investments in market infrastructure reforms that make the Russian equity and bond markets as convenient as possible for investors.

Euroclear and Clearstream’s access to the Russian market came in stages. They began servicing OFZs in spring 2013 and corporate bonds on 30 January 2014. The ICSDs were granted access to stocks from July 2014.

The entry of Euroclear and Clearstream to the Russian market makes the country’s securities market more widely accessible to international investors and will help to close spreads between domestic share prices and DRs traded on foreign exchanges. Moscow Exchange held an average 55% share of turnover during 2014 in trading in Russian securities with dual Moscow-London listings.

In 2014, Euroclear and Clearstream also received ownership of one share each in the National Settlement Depository (NSD), which operates Russia’s central securities depository, again underlining the transparency of the Russian securities market and Moscow Exchange’s corporate governance system.

Opening up the Russian equity market to clients of Euroclear and Clearstream is an important milestone, and shows that Russia’s trading infrastructure has passed an important test and Russia is now fully integrated into the global securities market.

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