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ISLA Supplement Profiles: Russia

21 July 2010

High operational risk caused by a fractured financial infrastructure and difficult legal conditions is threatening to stop the Russian securities lending market from realising its full potential

Read more: [Russia securities finance lending ISLA]

High operational risk caused by a fractured financial infrastructure and difficult legal conditions is threatening to stop the Russian securities lending market from realising its full potential, say participants in the country.

By being named as one of the BRIC countries, Russia has been identified as a market that could be ripe for success yet there are still a number of obstacles that have to be overcome if it is to really take off.

In Russia there are two exchanges and despositaries rather than one centralised one. Each exchange is linked to a particular depositary system and most of the liquidity is in the Micex exchange which, for the time being, only settles in rubles.

This is one of the main problems to the development of securities lending in the country because a lot of the international players don’t want to settle in rubles. If they are looking at trading...


 

Poll

What will UCITS IV mean to the market?

It will increase economies of scale and reduce costs for UCITS investors
34%
It will provide more choice, transparency and investor protection
17%
It will encourage the consolidation of funds
17%
It will result in a push by firms to domicile in a single location as opposed to multiple
17%
No real effect at all
14%