OREANDA-NEWS. On 28 May 2013, the 12th Conference of Central Securities Depositories (CSD12) will be opened in St. Petersburg, Russia. This will be the first time the Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories (AECSD), an organization representing the central depositories of the CIS countries, has played host to this global conference. The Administration of St Petersburg will act as a co-organizer of CSD12. National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia's central securities depository, a part of Moscow Exchange Group, is responsible for general administration of the CSD12 project.

CSD12 is supported by four other regional associations of central depositories: the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA), the Americas' Central Securities Depositories Association (ACSDA), the Africa & Middle East Depositories Association (AMEDA), and the Asia-Pacific Central Securities Depository Group (ACG). The World Forum of CSDs (WFC), an organization formed in 2011, is responsible for general coordination of the conference. Around 230 prominent speakers and delegates representing almost 70 countries will take part.

George Poltavchenko, Governor of St. Petersburg, said:
I am happy to welcome delegates at the Global CSD Forum to St. Petersburg!
St. Petersburg is not just the second Russian capital, a city with great cultural and historical traditions, it is also a major financial center in the country. It is a great honor for St. Petersburg to host an event of such a great scale and importance for our country.
Among the delegates at the forum will be respected experts, well-known financiers, representatives of major companies from many countries. They will discuss crucial issues related to the formation and development of modern financial markets and seek answers to important questions.
St. Petersburg remains one of the leaders in international financial and investment ratings. The city government’s financial policy is very balanced and reasonable. The budget revenue based on taxes paid by companies specialized in manufacturing allow us to fulfill our social obligations, to invest in the city’s development, to keep our invaluable historical and cultural heritage and to create modern urban infrastructure. We are eager to share our experience with the forum delegates.
We hope all our guests work successfully and fruitfully, and to get acquainted with our beautiful city during the “white nights” season!

Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, welcomed the event:
“We are happy to welcome delegates to the most important and widely representative global forum for the international financial market’s settlement infrastructure to St. Petersburg! CSD12, as a global conference, is a traditional event integrating key institutions playing a most important role in global economics – they ensure strict and thorough execution of the ownership rights for all financial assets in all regions of the world.
A central securities depository is not a shop window for the financial infrastructure, but it is its center. The global financial crisis has set for us and our colleagues a huge number of new tasks that were crucial for coping with the consequences of the crisis and creating new conditions for global economic development. International investors agree that the positive changes in various spheres of financial systems are connected with the operations of central securities depositories; these services include reliable custody of assets and collateral, timely and affordable settlements, reliability of corporate information, development of efficient forms of collateral management, facilitated access to global and national markets, and cross-border settlements. The range of our sector’s tasks is gradually expanding. Even the OTC derivatives market in respect of implementing the trade repository functions (a specific segment of world financial sector) has been included in the set of the CSDs’ and their subsidiaries’ services.
The conference of central securities depositories is a sort of an elite club which members organized two years ago under the umbrella of the World Forum of Central Securities Depositories. Like members of any respectable club, we need to communicate regularly, to meet and discuss topical issues, to find answers to complicated challenges emerging with increasing frequency in the financial markets.
I would like to thank the Government of St. Petersburg and personally the Governor as well as all the people of this wonderful city for the opportunity to organize this great forum in one of the most beautiful cities on our planet!”

The global forum of central securities depositories is held once every two years, each time in a different country, and represents a unique and prestigious opportunity for the exchange of experiences and discussion of new challenges and opportunities in the post-trading sector where CSDs play the key role. Among the delegates of the forum are representatives of regulators, central banks, providers of services, international banks and custodians as well as other professional stock market participants.

The forum is focused on CSD risk management. The four day program includes the following topics: the impact of global challenges on the development outlook of the post trading infrastructure, new opportunities for CSDs in the current environment, the effect of new regulatory rules and standards on the central depository services sector, as well as other special issues (CSD services related to collateral management, corporate actions, CSD interactions with central counterparties, CSD corporate governance etc.).

The CSD12 Steering Committee formed by AECSD more than three years ago includes representatives of Russia, Belarus, Belgium, UK, Canada, Uzbekistan, South Africa and Japan.

CSD12 is supported by the biggest global infrastructure institutions. Russia’s NSD is the event’s host sponsor, SWIFT (Belgium) is the conference’s platinum sponsor; KACD (CSD of Kazakhstan), Thomas Murray (UK) and Tata Consultancy Services (India) are the forum’s gold sponsors. Among the silver sponsors are AMEDA, China Central Depository and Clearing, Clearstream (Luxembourg), ECSDA, JASDEC (Japan) and KSD (Republic of Korea). Euroclear (Belgium), Millenium IT (Sri Lanka) и NASDAQ OMX (Sweden) are bronze sponsors of the event.