On 3 December 2013, the 3rd Russian National Forum for Corporate Governance featured the award ceremony honoring the winners of the 8th National Award "Director of the Year". Bella Zlatkis, the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of National Settlement Depository, was honored with a nomination "Chairperson of the Board of Directors: Contribution to the Corporate Governance Development”.
The award marks personal contribution of directors to the corporate governance systems development and promotes introducing and advancing high standards and best practices of corporate governance to be implemented by the managers of Russian companies. The award is organized by the Association of Independent Directors, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in partnership with PwC and Moscow Exchange.
The Steering Committee of the award highly appreciated the contribution of Bella Zlatkis to the management of the Supervisory Board activities during the important period of obtaining the status of the Central Securities Depository.
Under her direction, the corporate governance at NSD was brought in line with the international standards: the Code of Professional Ethics, the Development Strategy, including the strategy of risk management system development, and the Information Policy were approved. These are only a few areas under her supervision as the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of NSD.
"I would like to thank the organizers of the award for appreciating my contribution to NSD Supervisory Board activities,” commented Bella Zlatkis. “One of the key principles of the Supervisory Board activities is to serve the interests of customers and shareholders, to make transparent and balanced decisions in line with their needs. This principle has become systemically important for us and we plan to base our work on it in the future.”
"It is no exaggeration to say that the post-trading infrastructure is now in the midst of big changes. The fact that the work of the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of NSD was marked by the professional community proves that the process of changes runs quite successfully,” pointed out Eddie Astanin, the Chairman of the Execuive Board of NSD. “The importance of the contribution of Bella Zlatkis to the Supervisory Board activities can scarcely be overestimated. The past years of 2011-2012 were most important for us. This was a fledging period for NSD, and at the same time we completed the big projects of integrating NSD, DCC, RTS Settlement Chamber and obtaining the CSD status. The Supervisory Board approved the Development Strategy of NSD until 2015. Currently, due to the active process of integrating the Russian CSD into the global infrastructure, including the fact of bringing the key players like Euroclear and Clearstream to the Russian Market, we are considering the opportunity to appoint renowned world experts as independent directors within the Supervisory Board. I am confident that this will boost the performance of the Supervisory Board.”
The Supervisory Board is NSD’s superior management body exercising management functions during the periods between the General Meetings of Shareholders. Supervisory Board members are elected by the General Meeting of Shareholders for the period until the next annual General Meeting. The procedures of the Supervisory Board are governed by the Regulations on the Supervisory Board approved by the General Meeting. The Supervisory Board performs strategic management of NSD, exercises control over the company’s financial and business activities, and approves the company’s budget.