OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2011. National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia's only settlement depository servicing the full range of debt and equity securities of Russian issuers, reports that on 11 May it signed agreements for provision of transfer agent services with the following registers: VTB Registrar CJSC, PRC CJSC, REESTR OJSC, Reyestr-RN LLC, STATUS CJSC. The company also signed letters of intent with the following registrars: Irkol CJSC, CJSC "Computershare Registrar", "Noviy Registrator" JSC and Registrar NIKoil Company (JSC).

The signing ceremony has been held in NSD's office. Among NSD's representatives attending the ceremony were Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, Boris Cherkassky, Director for Strategy, and Alexei Zhinkin, Director for External Operations. The registrars were represented by Konstantin Petrov, Director General, VTB Registrar CJSC, Vladislav Moskalchuk, Director General, Irkol CJSC, Vadim Protasenko, Director General,  CJSC "Computershare Registrar", Rushaniya Barkhatova, Director General, "Noviy Registrator" JSC, Oleg Savitsky, Director General, PRC CJSC, Mikhail Lomakin, Director General, Registrar NIKoil Company (JSC), Yuri Taranovsly, Director General, REESTR OJSC, Vladimir Shakotko, Director General, Reyestr-RN LLC, and Mikhail Nedelsky, Director General, STATUS CJSC.

Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, said: "A signing of the agreements is aimed at improvement of efficiency and reduction of expenses related to the market's record keeping system using NSD as a "one stop shop" for interactions between professional market participants and registrars."

Mikhail Nedelsky, Director General, STATUS CJSC, added: "That is a great project, both custodians and registrars need it. We would like to thank NSD acting as the project's coordinator and initiator. Certainly this is one of the first steps towards enhancement of interactions among record keeping institutions. I hope that we will make the next steps with NSD's support. "

Dmitry Ludvik, Junior Vice President, Deutsche Bank Ltd., and Dmitry Medvedev, Senior Account Manager Product Development, ING Commercial Banking, have also attended the ceremony.

Natalya Sidorova, Head Securities Services, ING Commercial Banking, pointed out: "We are happy to see a successful implementation of the first stage of our joint project with NSD, which relates to establishment of a single entrance point for interactions with registrars using EDI. Such interactions represent a primary need; they will allow to reduce the operating risks and the market participants' expenses. We are also happy that ING Bank is the first depository signed a framework EDI agreement with the registrars that had joined the project."

Now NSD's  clients may use a service related to transmission of electronic documents to the registrars for conducting of operations in registers and for receipt of the appropriate reports from the registrars. NSD's EDI Rules establish a procedure of formation, receipt/transmission and processing of electronic documents, as well as NSD's responsibilities connected with processing, checking of the electronic signature's authenticity and keeping of the transmitted messages.

The new service allows:
To exclude necessity in conclusion of agreements of each participant with each registrar when organizing EDI in their accounts with registers. All necessary agreements and contracts are to be concluded with NSD.
To speed up and make cheaper a delivery of orders to the registers and receipt of information from the registers
To simplify compilation of a register of securities holders
To avoid occurrence of fake orders and reports
To arrange a receipt/transmission of electronic documents in PARTAD format; it will allow to speed up and automate a processing of information from the register and execution of orders, as well as to decrease operating risks and expenses.

PARTAD works on a procedure of registration of transfer agent agreements by the self-regulated organization considering implementation of transfer agent functions by NSD.