On 31 May 2016, National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository, held a seminar “Creating Centralized UIT Units Record Keeping System Project”. Participants of the event included representatives of asset management and brokerage companies, depositories owned by banks, special depositories, and registrars maintaining registers of UIT unit holders. Specialists from NSD and Russian National Association of Securities Market Participants (NAUFOR) presented their reports at the seminar.
Sergey Aristov, Director of Client Relations Department, NSD, opened the event and welcomed the participants. Yekaterina Gantseva, Deputy Chairperson of the Management Board, NAUFOR, described different channels and opportunities of UIT units’ distribution, and highlighted current legal issues and further regulatory developments in this sphere.
Olga Usanova, Head of the Centralized UIT Units Record Keeping System Project, NSD, presented a report on the current state of the new project of the CSD. This initiative is aimed at development of conditions and infrastructure enabling to form an open sales architecture on the primary investment unit market. It is also intended to create new distribution channels and to facilitate operations in the collective investment market.
The project also involves a unification of formats and standards for data exchange, an increased transparency and standardization of information disclosure. It will be implemented in several stages. In 2016, at the first stage, it is planned to create an automated system of purchasing, repayment and units exchange between broker companies’ clients using the two level nominee scheme. The WEB Office of the Centralized UIT Units Record Keeping System will be launched in October.
Yulia Khodakova, Head of EDI and Client Applications Department, NSD, spoke about target interaction channels associated with the project and formats based on ISO 20022. She highlighted the advantages of the ISO 20022 standard and presented a list of messages to be used in the project.