Today trading starts at the united MICEX and RTS exchange. Today is also a starting point of the new Exchange Charter, and its legal structure will be converted from CJSC to OJSC. Ruben Aganbegyan, the President of the joint stock exchange, said to “Kommersant”, that the plan is generally fulfilled and more time is needed for the comprehensive organizational structure unification. “From the very beginning, we considered business unification to be our primary task, and this task has been completed”, says Ruben Aganbegyan. “Participants will feel the full effect of this integration, when its technological stage starts, in particular, creation of the joint exchange entry and clearing integration”.

The trading participants won’t feel any differences from this day on. According to the stock exchange news, the trading started in three new sectors from Monday, but their novelty is nominal. The first sector is named “The General Market”, it unites all existing trading regimes at MICEX. The second sector, named Standard, is the RTS Standard Market transferred to MICEX. The third one, Classica, is a classical RTS market, transferred to MICEX. Derivatives Markets of both exchanges still function; these are the MICEX derivatives market (currency and interest rate trading) and the Forts derivatives market (securities, currency, and commodity derivatives trading). The Exchange will continue to calculate and publish indexes of both groups – MICEX and RTS, “and we will continue developing these indexes”, stated Ruben Aganbegyan.

The joint stock exchange infrastructure that was a reason for the exchange integration (see a fact sheet) is still a project, and this project, according to Dmitry Pankin, the Head of the FFMS, is a subject of criticism. “We’ve seen a working draft of the joint infrastructure plan. As we see, it needs some serious improvement”, he said to “Kommersant”. “We can’t say right now that this integration is complete”, explained Andrey Shemetov, CEO, “Aton”, adding that one couldn’t expect any crucial changes in infrastructure during this short period of time. “Organizational issues, connected with integration, are very difficult to be solved. They need much more time”, thinks Evgeny Dankevich, the Senior Vice-President, Bank “Otkritie”. Meanwhile, he reminded that the joint exchange IPO is planned to take place in the fourth quarter of 2012 – first quarter of 2013, and that might be a good incentive for the management.

“The participants will feel the positive result of this integration when the technological stage starts”, said Ruben Aganbegyan, the President of the joint stock exchange MICEX-RTS.

Today the participants are waiting for the rapid introduction of new services at the joint exchange. In particular, calculations without depositing and integrated clearing. Mr. Pankin stated, he expects the exchange to detect trading of the most important regime according to the liquidity criterion, without pre-depositing (T+n). Today the T+n regime exists in the RTS – Standard sector, but the main spot market liquidity is focused in the integrated exchange section that previously was a MICEX part. “If trading without pre-depositing starts to operate there, this will decrease costs and make securities trading in Russia more appealing”, believes Stanislav Surikov, the Head of Prime Brokerage and E-Trading, FG BCS. According to Alexey Zabotkin, the Head of Investment Strategy, VTB Capital, transfer to T+n will allow to increase not only liquidity itself, but also its volume – the number of buy and sell orders at a certain moment. “This regime will attract foreign participants, who are used to work in this regime”, added Mr. Dankevich. As Ruben Aganbegyan told us, the trading regime free of pre-depositing, with the securities payment on the third day after the deal (T+3) will appear at the general market in the late second quarter of 2012.

The integrated clearing is still a subject of the future introduction at the MICEX-RTS. Ruben Aganbegyan stated that the NCC (National Clearing Centre) will provide integrated clearing to all markets starting next year.

Right now, waiting for the exchange integration on the services basis, brokerage houses will provide all necessary services to the participants, believes Stanislav Surikov. “Though the exchange has integrated, still trading participants have to pay for the technical entry at the MICEX and RTS, and this problem is solved by a broker”, says Alexander Shcheglov, CEO, Zerich Capital Management. Brokers also provide an opportunity to trade on both platforms using one account with all the assets appropriate for trading in all regimes, while the broker transfers money and executes clearing, added Alexander Shcheglov.

The exchange officers promise to provide a detailed plan of the integrated infrastructure introduction in the beginning of the next year. Dmitry Pankin stressed, it should be reflected in the MICEX strategy. “We also expect to see a detailed plan of IT systems development and transfer to the integrated technological platform”, said Dmitry Pankin. Ruben Aganbegyan also proved that the integrated exchange strategy is to appear in the beginning of 2012.

Petr Rudenko

Trading infrastructure, Ruben Aganbegyan