OREANDA-NEWS. January 22, 2008. The sizes of the Reserve and the Contingency funds of the RTS Clearing Centre, which carries out clearing operations on trades on FORTS, have been increased, the RTS' press service reports.

The Reserve fund of the RTS Clearing centre has been increased by 100 mln rubles and reached 550 mln rubles. The decision on the increase of the Reserve fund was taken by the OJSC "RTS" Board of Directors.

Also the Contingency fund has been increased, which consists of contributions of FORTS members. Now the size of the Contingency fund is 950 mln rubles.

The increase of funds is connected with the fast growth of FORTS market. In 2007 trading volume on FORTS grew threefold and reached 280,7 bln dollars, open interest volume at the end of the year made up 141,7 bln rubles or 3 222 320 contracts.

By the end of 2007 the size of the Guarantee fund made up 993,981. After the increase of the Contingency and the Reserve funds the size of the Guarantee fund grew by 30% to 1,5 bln rubles. Total size of all funds, constituting the risk management system on FORTS (guarantee fund plus initial margin) is 15,6 bln rubles now.

The Reserve and the Contingency funds are part of the RTS Clearing centre Guarantee fund. The Guarantee fund is necessary to ensure proper and safer level of guarantees in the condition of high market volatility. Creation and support of the funds on the highest levels is the best market practice of leading trading floors in the world.

Roman Goryunov, Chairman of OJSC "RTS": “RTS is gradually carrying out a policy of capitalization growth of settlement-clearing infrastructure. Secure settlement-clearing infrastructure is one of the main factors of competitive development of the Russian market, and its growth of attractiveness for the Russian and foreign investors. The increase of the Guarantee fund will positively tell on the derivatives market development: limits for participants will rise and the liquidity of the whole market will rise too.”

Derivatives market of RTS – FORTS is a leading trading ground for futures and options in Russia. Trading on FORTS started in September 2001. At present FORTS has the widest in Russian range of instruments. These are 63 contracts (44 futures and 19 options) on shares of Russian companies, bonds, short interest rates, currency, RTS Index, oil, silver, gas, oil, sugar and gold.

The trading volume on FORTS in 2007 grew threefold and made up 297,41 bln dollars or144,9 contracts. Comparing with 2006 the number of trades increased more than twofold and reached 11,7mln. Total volume of open interest for the end of the year equaled 141,7 rubles in cash or 3,2 contracts. The highest intra-day trading volume on FORTS was registered at the level of 5,2 bln dollars.