CBR to let individuals with income of 20 mln rubles to become qualified investors without testing

MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is proposing to introduce an asset requirement to obtain the status of qualified investor in addition to educational criteria, a degree or advanced financial literacy test.

The asset requirement would be set at 6 million rubles in 2025 and double to 12 million rubles as of January 1, 2026, a draft order published by the CBR on Thursday showed.

The document also proposes that an investor be allowed to gain "qualified" status without additional criteria if their average annual income was at least 20 million rubles in the past two years, not including proceeds from the sale of real estate. The minimum average annual income needed to qualify in combination with the educational criteria, degree or advanced testing will be 6 million rubles.

By the asset criterion, investors will be able to gain qualified status with assets upward of 12 million rubles in 2025 and upwards of 24 million rubles starting in 2026.

A higher education or post-graduate degree in "Finance and Credit," "Finance" and "Finance, Money Management and Credit" will also be considered independent criteria.

Investors will also be eligible to be recognized as qualified if they have experience working in positions to which appointment required the approval of the CBR, qualifications in the field of financial markets according to the professional standards "Securities Market Specialist" and "Financial Consulting Specialist," or one of the following international certificates: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM).

In addition, this status will also be available to those who carried out transactions with securities (shares and bonds of Russian and foreign issuers, depositary receipts, investment units, etc.) an average of at least ten times per quarter and at least once a month for the past four full quarters. The combined value of these transactions must be at least 6 million rubles, or at least 4 million rubles if the investor has academic credentials.

The change in criteria for investor qualification has been a longstanding bone of contention between the CBR and brokers, who fear the regulator's actions will cost them a share of the retail investment market, which has been booming in recent years. The National Association of Stock Market Participants (NAUFOR) has repeatedly proposed to postpone the tightening of the criteria to keep from hurting the market's recovery.

The order is expected to go into effect on May 23, 2025. The CBR is taking comments until March 26.