OREANDA-NEWS. May 22, 2012. National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia's only settlement depository servicing the full range of debt and equity securities of Russian issuers, announces that it has begun developing bilateral road maps in conjunction with registrars interested in testing of procedures and technologies of interactions with the central depository. At the first stage the company will be working on the road maps together with CJSC VTB Registrar, CJSC Irkol, CJSC Computershare Registrar, and CJSC STATUS.

The core idea of the bilateral road maps is to unify procedures and to test technologies of practical interactions of the central depository and registrars in accordance with the Federal Law #414-FZ “On the Central Depository” dated 7 December 2012. In particular, the road maps will describe the practical implementation of the following procedures: opening nominee holder’s account in the register, reconciling data during conducting operations of writing off (crediting) securities in the register, daily reconciliation, compiling lists of securities owners prior to the meetings of the shareholders and corporate actions. Special attention will be paid to the procedure of securities buyback operations in the registers in compliance with the Federal Law #208-FZ “On Joint Stock Companies” dated 26 December 1995.

Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, stated: “One of important goals of development of the bilateral road maps is to form issuers’ and Russian public companies shareholders’ clear vision of the practice of compliance with the law on the central depository.  We think it is crucial to begin working on issues falling within registrars’ and depositories’ competence and provided by current Russian legislation. However, some procedures and technical solutions will be clarified only upon completion of the process of formation of the central depository’s regulatory framework.”

NSD’s Committee for Interactions with Registrars and Depositories will consider the Regulations on Procedure of Interactions with Registrars and Depositories at the next meeting. This document has been prepared on the basis of solutions jointly developed by NSD’s and PARTAD’s profile committees. NSD’s and registrars’ expert vision regarding the procedure of interactions between the central depository and registrars is to be submitted to Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service after discussing it with the PARTAD on 21 May.

Mr. Astanin adds: “We consider the legal base regulating the process of switching to the new market model, as well as the bilateral road maps, not only as a way to settle technical issues but also as an important signal to the global investment community. Our consultations with major international investors reveal that these issues are of their interest, and the ways of solving them will be taken into consideration by risk managers assessing Russian investment assets which eventually determine the biggest global players’ investment policy.”