The Central Bank may prohibit the Moscow Stock Exchange from providing brokerage services

The meeting took place on September 18; In the materials for participants, the Central Bank formulated its approach to exchange corridors as follows: “Do not create conditions for direct access to organized trade and do not expand the list of participants in trade. Prohibit commercial organizers from directly or indirectly (through subsidiaries) providing direct access services to non-participants. But don’t limit outsourcing services to brokers.”

At the same time, the Bank of Russia is ready to tighten the requirements for brokers, which in fact become exchanges and combine clients’ buy and sell orders “internally,” RBC writes. Several measures were discussed at the meeting, including limits on internal transactions, guaranteeing the best price principle, possible replacement of the Central Counterparty with another structure, licensing brokers for such transactions and collegiate regulation of Moscow Stock Exchange rates.

The opinion of the Central Bank expressed at the meeting was confirmed by the National Association of Securities Market Participants (NAUFOR) and the Association of Bond Owners (ABO). NAUFOR Director Alexey Timofeev noted that restrictions for brokers should be linked to the volume of transactions in the market and not to the volume of orders, which is also supported by the Central Bank.

In March 2024, the Central Bank began to discuss the issue of opening accounts for investors directly on the Moscow Stock Exchange, Kommersant wrote. The brokers were not happy with the platform’s initiative as it could become their competitor.

In response to criticism, the Moscow Stock Exchange planned to buy its own broker. The law does not allow a trading platform to obtain a brokerage license, but it is not prohibited to own such a company.