NSMA Price Center Information now available for Interfax subscribers

National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository, the National Securities Market Association (NSMA) and the Interfax International Information Group announce a beginning of interactions for distribution of the NSMA Price Center’s information. Data on fair value of more than 1,800 financial instruments calculated on a daily basis by the NSMA Price Center is integrated in the Reference United Data (RU DATA), in the EFIR Add-In, a system of market and credit risk calculation, and in the EFIR exchange terminal.

The NSMA Price Center clients will be able to get a daily assessment of securities’ fair values in compliance with the generally recognized methods; this is very important for holders of illiquid inrstuments. The subscribers will receive an access to instruments’ indicative quotations that will be taken into consideration for concluding transactions with counterparties or for market risk analysis and financial statement preparation as the quotation are recognized by the Bank of Russia. The clients will not need to develop and support their own methods of determining instruments’ fair values; they will get an opportunity to reduce their operational costs. The NSMA Price Center calculates fair values of bonds, shares traded on the Moscow Exchange, and standardized UIT units transactions with which are registered with the Moscow Exchange.

Financial instruments’ fair values are calculated by the NSMA Price Center on the basis of the NSMA Methods of fair value determination. The Methods are developed with the Bank of Russia’s support; they correspond to the IFRS requirements and regulatory acts issued by Russia’s Ministry of Finance. The Methods include the calculation of price parameters on the basis of four groups of indicators (market prices, NSMA fixing prices, zero coupon yield curve and data on issuers’ credit quality).

In 2014, the NSMA Price Center Methods was certified by Russia’s Guild of Investment and Financial Analysts году and successfully underwent an expert appraisal by the European Bond Commission. The NSMA fair value calculation is conducted on the basis of hardware and software complex of NSD, NSMA’s strategic partner.

About NSD

National Settlement Depository (NSD) is the central securities depository* of the Russian Federation, a part of the Moscow Exchange Group. NSD was founded on 27 June 1996. Total value of assets on deposit with NSD amounted to RUB27.8 trillion as of the end of 30 April 2015. The Bank of Russia recognized NSD the systemically important central securities depository, settlement depository and repository. The NSD payment system has a status of the systemically and nationally important system.

NSD offers a wide range of services to its clients including settlement and depository services, registration of the OTC transactions (repository services), information services and collateral management services. As Russia‘s national numbering agency and the substitute numbering agency for the CIS, NSD is authorized to assign the international ISIN and CFI codes. NSD acts as a Local Operating Unit (LOU) allowing to assign Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) to the company’s clients. The Bank of Russia has assigned to NSD a status of an operator of NSD Payment System (registered name).

NSD conducts all exchange settlements and a major part of OTC settlements, services Russian and foreign securities as central securities depository. Currently, NSD has accounts with central securities depositories and international central securities depositories of eight countries, as well as correspondent accounts with major foreign and Russian banks. NSD services securities issued by the companies representing more than 40 countries. The international rating agency Thomas Murray has assigned NSD an AA- rating as a central securities depository.

For additional information about NSD please visit www.nsd.ru.

*The status of the central securities depository was assigned to NSD by the Russian Federal Financial Markets Services’ order #12-2761/PZ-I dated 6 November 2012. NSD holds professional securities market participant license #177-12042-000100 for depository operations issued by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on 19 February 2009, license #3294 for bank operations issued by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on 26 July 2012 and license #077-00004-000010 for clearing activities issued by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on 20 December 2012.

About NSMA

The National Securities Market Association (NSMA) is a leading organization of professional participants of the Russian securities market. It includes about 220 members, mainly from credit organizations, located in 27 Russian regions. The NSMA was founded in January 1996 by major government securities market participants supported by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Bank of Russia. Now the Association operates on a self-regulatory basis in Russia’s stock market (with an unlimited number of types of professional activities). Among the Association’s key projects in financial markets are development of repo transactions and refinancing system in general, development of financial infrastructure, improvement of technologies, instruments and operations, development of professional activities, reduction of the regulatory burden etc.

The NSMA is an associate member and represents the Russian participants of securities market in the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and in the European Financial Markets Federation. It also interacts with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA).

For further information about NSMA: www.nfa.ru, info@nfa.ru, +7 495 980 9874.

About Interfax

Interfax is the recognized leader on the Russian information market in the B2B segment. Interfax was founded in 1989, when a group of journalists formed an information agency that became the first non-governmental outlet for the latest political and economic news about the Soviet Union. Interfax has been the most frequently cited source for information on Russia and the CIS countries in the world and the most popular news source in the Russian stock market.

Interfax develops professional information solutions that help companies operating in financial and commodity markets to make investment decisions, manage risks, organize external communications and meet regulatory requirements. Among the most popular services of Interfax are the SPARK systems (risk management, marketing, business evaluation), EFiR (complex information for financial market participants), E-DISLOSURE. RU (information disclosure system at stock market), SCAN (media monitoring and analysis system).

Together with Experian and Sberbank of Russia, Interfax founded the Experian Interfax credit bureau, a leader in Russia’s market of credit information. Moody’s Interfax Rating Agency, in partnership with Moody‘s Investor Service, assigns credit ratings on a national scale in Russia. Another joint company created by Interfax and Dun & Bradstreet, a US company, the leader of the international information market, provides information about foreign companies.

In the beginning of April 2015, National Settlement Depository (NSD) and Interfax announced a launch of a joint project aimed at formation of Reference United Data (RU DATA) and development of the price center.