The National Clearing Center was assigned as Russia’s first qualified central counterparty

On 18 October 2013 the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) notified that the National Clearing Center (NCC) was assigned as Russia’s first qualified central counterparty. CBR’s decision was made due to the NCC’s management qualities as they meet the requirements for credit organizations acting as CCPs, which are as follows:

• The management quality of a credit organization acting as a central counterparty on the Moscow Exchange is officially recognized satisfying the state’s regulative requirements and the best international standards;
• The decrease of regulation of the NCC’s operations as a qualified CCP was directly caused by the international initiative to define banks’ capital adequacy (Basel III);
• Russian banks will use the reduced risk ratios on CCPs requirements when calculating their H1 coefficient;
• Russian banks are not obliged to calculate the risk of the issuer's securities on the exchange REPOs anymore, as NCC now acts as the central counterparty;
• Banks’ credit requirements to the qualified CCP will be calculated with a 5 percent risk ratio instead of a 20 percent or 100 percent one, such as to other counterparties.

Impact on investors: Assigning NCC as the first qualified central counterparty will provide additional guarantees of the reliability of the Russian market infrastructure for local and foreign investors.