Natasha Sidorova, Head of GSS Russia, has represented UniCredit in a meeting of the NFA Depository Council. By Daria Fadeeva, Relationship Manager, GSS Russia
The National Finance Association (NFA) is the largest self-regulation organisation joining Russian custodians. The agenda of its latest Depository Council meeting, in particular, covered the main directions of the NFA work for 2018 that are planned to be carried out in close cooperation with the local custodians in a number of specialised expert working groups. Apart from general topics, different elements of the infrastructure were discussed, i.e., registrars, specialised depositories, custodians etc.
The most important and, in our view, interesting tasks that NFA is going to work on together with the market participants are as follows:
- elimination of excessive regulatory burden and standardisation of the interaction with regulators
- further development of the securities market infrastructure (including changes to the law on the securities market, introduction of securities lending, clarification on the allocation of income in case of bankruptcy of an issuer, creation of a “warehouse” for arrested securities and securities under liquidation on the basis of NSD etc.)
- investigation of diversified practical usage of fintech and blockchain technologies
- outsourcing of brokerage back-office functions to custodians
- mitigation of tax agent risks for custodians and the creation of a common database of investors by their tax residence
- segregation of accounts based on NSD so that they can be clearly allocated to underlying investors in case of custodian bankruptcy
- frequency, basis and rationale for disclosure requirements by the issuers
- inclusion of voluntary offers to corporate actions to be cascaded via NSD
- perspective payment system, its evolution and integration with RTGS
The meeting was well attended by representatives of the largest market players. Participation in these kinds of meetings and working groups allows UniCredit Bank to be closely involved in market discussions and influence market trends and the further evolution of the infrastructure, - via sharing our international experience, best practices and practical knowledge in working with our large international clients.
Daria Fadeeva
Relationship Manager
Global Securities Services Russia
darya.fadeeva@unicredit.ru