The "Single Window" system for information disclosure on the securities market announced by the National Settlement Depository (NSD) will help minimise delays in the delivery of corporate action data to the recordkeeping system and cut costs for issuers, said Ms Elena Kuritsyna, Director of Corporate Relations Department at the Central Bank of Russia.
As part of the project, "it is planned, where possible, to harmonise the scope of information required to be disclosed and circulated in the course of a corporate action", she said.
It is known that [Russian] issuers currently publish all their corporate action notices through the news agencies accredited by the Bank of Russia, and only then, often with a significant delay, do they send their CA notices (which largely overlap with the so-called "notices of material corporate events") to NSD. The "Single Window" system being created under the auspices of the news agencies will enable companies to publish both types of notices, which are currently governed by two different regulations of the Bank of Russia, ie Regulation No. 454-P and Regulation No. 546-P.
Ms Kuritsyna noted that the Bank of Russia is exploring the possibility to align the requirements imposed on corporate issuers which are set out in the Bank of Russia's Regulations. "The Bank of Russia is now working to prepare the relevant amendments relating to the information required to be disclosed by issuers in accordance with the Bank of Russia's Regulation No. 454-P and information categorised under the Bank of Russia's Regulation No. 546-P as corporate action information", Ms Kuritsyna commented.
"The creation of the "Single Window" system will not affect the existing methods of disclosing information on corporate actions, and issuers will still be entitled to utilise any of the channels available to them to send such information to NSD", she said. The institutions maintaining securities ownership records will become able to control the information delivery points. According to Ms Kuritsyna, data feeds will be double-checked, which will reduce the risk of incorrect data being fed into the system.
"The project seeks to make more convenient and deliver cost savings to issuers in the course of disclosure and circulation of corporate actions data, including, potentially, using the engine to generate corporate action notices provided by the news agencies as an extra service. Persons interested in receiving such updates—primarily investors—will be interested in the project because it seeks, where possible, to harmonise the scope of information required to be disclosed and circulated in the course of a corporate action. Furthermore, this will help minimise delays in delivering corporate action data", said Ms Kuritsyna in an interview to Interfax.
On Thursday, NSD announced the launch of a project to create a technological solution to enable corporate issuers to disclose both material events data and corporate actions data through the Single Window system created under the auspices of the news agencies. According to the project schedule, the technological platform for the Single Window system is to be created in late 2017/early 2018. The project is being implemented by the Bank of Russia together with NSD and the news agencies authorised to disclose securities information. The issuers surveyed by Interfax have applauded the project.
The news agencies which opt to link up with NSD's corporate information centre would need to undertake compliance with NSD's technological requirements, in particular, to support ISO 20022 data transmission via secure channels using the Moscow Exchange's EDI system, NSD stated in a press-release. The new arrangement is expected to raise, "to a qualitatively new level, the information support to all participants in the investment process, including the recordkeeping institutions, holders of Russian issuers' securities and a wide range of potential investors around the globe", Mr Eddie Astanin, Chairman of NSD's Executive Board was quoted as saying in the press release.
Since 2003, [Russian] issuers have reported material corporate events through five accredited news agencies, including Interfax. Last year, a requirement was imposed on corporate issuers to publish corporate action notices.
Companies published as many as 204,000 notices of "material corporate events" on the agencies' newswires last year. All of the companies' updates are duplicated by the five authorised agencies, which means there are five completely identical and mutually replaceable data disclosure centres. Issuers also use the news agencies' websites to release their annual and quarterly financial statements.