SPARK, D&B expand number of sources on Belarusian companies

Interfax International Information Group has reached a cooperation agreement with the Republican Unitary Enterprise Republican Central Securities Depository of Belarus (RUE RCSD), allowing it to post information about Belarusian issuers in the Russian system SPARK and the international system of D&B.

Based on the agreement, Interfax will be able to receive reports on the activities of Belarusian issuers and directories of securities issues.

"We hope that cooperation with Interfax will help promote information about the securities of Belarusian issuers, particularly on the equity markets of member countries of the Common Economic Space, and will make this information available to a broad range of potential investors from other countries," RUE RCSD Director Valentina Timoshenko said.

"Information about Belarusian issuers is an important step in expanding the segment in SPARK related to information about foreign companies. A separate section on Belarusian companies will be created in SPARK. In addition, we will be able to provide more complete information about Belarusian companies to potential foreign partners and investors who make their requests to Interfax through the international network of Dun & Bradstreet," Interfax Executive Director Vladimir Gerasimov said.

RUE RCSD is the central securities depository of Belarus, and as such provides centralized custody of securities, ensures cooperation among depositories and their depositors, acts as a settlement depository for the exchange, establishes correspondent relations with foreign depositories and provides depository services to issuers of shares and bonds.

RUE RCSD is a member of the Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories, a partner of the Association of National Numbering Agencies, and acts as the National Numbering Agency of Belarus.

SPARK is the largest information and analysis system on companies in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, serving as a resource for checking the reliability of counterparties and verifying prices, managing credit and tax risks, marketing, assessing businesses, and investment and financial analysis. This resource contains information about more than 20 million companies and individual entrepreneurs, provided by dozens of different sources, including ministries and government agencies, judicial bodies, companies themselves and Interfax. SPARK also provides access to the global database of Dun & Bradstreet, which covers more than 230 million companies around the world.

Interfax-Dun&Bradstreet, founded in 2008 by the Interfax Group and Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), provides access in the CIS to the global D&B database on companies, and provides world-class services for assessing credit risks and counterparty risks.