OREANDA-NEWS. CSD.Austria, the Austrian Central Securities Depository operated by OeKB, and National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository, launch an international direct link to the full range of Russian securities. As a result, Austrian and international custodians holding securities accounts with CSD.Austria can conduct direct settlement of Russian securities and safekeep them using CSD.Austriasґs foreign nominee account opened with NSD. This means significant savings in time and costs for foreign investors.

Opening this new direct link with NSD became possible after recent amendment of Russian legislation allowing foreign Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) to open Foreign Nominee Accounts with NSD, which had been granted CSD status in 2012. CSDs with direct links with NSD will have a possibility to provide their clients a direct access to Russian on-exchange and OTC markets in respect of all types of Russian securities, as well as to information services and ruble settlements.

“We are proud to offer to our customers the direct settlement of all Russian securities, - happily confirms Georg Zinner, head of the OeKB Capital Market Services business unit, - The original securities are held by the CSD.Austria directly with the Russian CSD. This effectively shortens the line of depositories involved and considerably increases custody quality”.

Considering the vast interest of foreign investors in the Russian market in general and the large number of IPOs already announced for the oncoming years as part of the Russian government's privatization program, Mr. Zinner predicts high traffic figures for the new custody link.

Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board of NSD, pointed out: “CSD.Austria's decision to open an account with NSD reflects the progress made in integrating Russia’s financial market into the global post trading infrastructure and contributes to a reduction in investors’ costs for access to the Russian stock market, particularly for investments in shares of the Russian companies”.