Russian Federal Tax Service registers first two joint-stock companies with shares in form of DFA

MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - The Federal Tax Service (FTS) and JSC Status have registered the first two non-public joint-stock companies in Russia whose shares are issued in the form of digital financial assets (DFA), according to a statement from the information system operator.

The shares have been placed among the founders, and the register of owners is maintained by the Status registrar on a blockchain.

"This is a progressive form that gives businesses reduced costs, lower administrative expenses for corporate actions, reliability and accuracy in accounting for rights. In 2026, we plan to register more than 20 joint-stock companies whose shares are issued in the form of DFA. We see business interest in such companies," the general director of JSC Status, Lyudmila Mironova, was quoted as saying.

The issuance technology works as follows: after the founder makes a decision to issue shares as DFAs and provides the required documents to the information system (IS) operator, the IS operator issues the shares in the form of DFAs, and the founder pays for the charter capital into a nominal account at a credit institution. The company is subsequently registered with the FTS. Maintaining the register of owners of shares issued in the form of DFAs is carried out by a specialized registrar on a blockchain, based on a specialized registrar's license.

The process of issuing shares in the DFAs format requires significantly less time and financial resources compared to traditional methods of issuing securities. The application of blockchain technology automates the accounting of ownership rights, implementation of corporate procedures and execution of transactions, which ultimately leads to a reduction in the operational and management expenses of the enterprise, JSC Status said.

The transfer of rights to digital shares is carried out almost instantly online. Due to the immutability of the blockchain, operations cannot be canceled or corrected, which guarantees their reliability and transparency, it said.

DFA are digital analogues of securities, which are issued as records in an information system based on a distributed ledger and confirm an investor's rights to an asset.

JSC Status is one of the largest registrars in Russia. The Central Bank of Russia included the company in the register of information system operators in which DFAs are issued on December 11.