National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository, held first corporate actions using a new technology in accordance with legislative amendments put into effect 1 July 2016 that established a new procedure for corporate actions processing on the Russian market.
To date, 10 shareholder and 5 bond holder meetings have been held. All corporate actions were processed in an electronic format using ISO 20022 international standards. The new interaction procedure for processing corporate actions standardizes the process, makes it more convenient for security holders, reduces market participants’ costs, and improves the quality and transparency of corporate governance on the Russian market.
The first shareholders meetings conducted via new technology reflected market participants’ readiness for legal and technological innovations – no deadlines were violated and no technical failures occurred during the full corporate action cycle. Since the end of 2015, to prepare for the new legal framework and changes in the corporate action processing procedure, NSD held special tests with market participants to check technological readiness, work on interactions, and tune up market participants’ internal procedures and systems.
On 1 July 2016, provisions of Federal Law #210-FZ stipulating the new procedure for corporate actions conducted by Russian issuers, and the newly created corporate information center went into effect. Now, all meetings of security holders on the Russian market shall be held in a centralized manner via institutions of the record-keeping system, including the central securities depository. Issuers shall submit all required information related to exercising rights to securities in the unified electronic format to the depository and provide participants with the option of using e-proxy voting technology.