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Regulator Talks to Financial Market

17.10.2013 19:48 / Interfax

On Thursday, non-banks presented the megaregulator, Bank of Russia Financial Markets Service, with their drafts of regulator KPIs and further market development measures. 10 presentations on 10 key topics was made in public, with FMS Head Sergey Shvetsov commenting each presentation.

Some proposals prompted positive feedback from Shvetsov (including “digitalization of the entire country” and eliminating paperwork), some were met with skepticism (such as the call for hedge funds, whose reputation suffered globally in the 2008 crisis).

Shvetsov promised careful regulation to the microfinance market, highlighted the role of pension savings, pointed out the need for monitoring insurers’ assets and called for establishing standards of operational robustness in accounting infrastructure, also stating the importance of financial awareness programs. Shvetsov added on a side note that share investment funds would have to put some effort in communicating the value of their instrument to clients.

The Head of FMS reiterated that the interests of Russia’s internal infrastructure organizations, who favor protectionism, and the interests of investors should be balanced. He assured that he sees no threat in plans to offer Euroclear and Clearstream access to the share market in 2014, proposing to limit Russian private investors’ access to offshore stock market participants.

Shvetsov also promised to continue the elimination of double reporting, and if this effort proves effective, revise the approach to reporting.

The Head of FMS did not object to proposed KPI, some of which included growth rate of private investors, IPOs, investment funds NWA, the share of insurance premiums in GDP. “It’s a good thing stock market index growth is not among the KPIs”, he joked. Nevertheless, FMS will be given the ultimate choice of its own KPIs.

Financial markets megaregulatorProject Group №1