Russia's First Asset Management secures license to manage assets in India

MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - First Asset Management has secured a category two Foreign Portfolio Investor license in India, the Russian company said.

The license gives the company access to transactions on the local securities market and allows it to manage the assets of clients on the Indian stock market, opening direct accounts with Indian brokers and other professional market participants such as banks and depositories.

India has two major exchanges, the National Stock Exchange and the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange), as well as more than 20 small regional exchanges. The financial instruments of more than 2,000 issuers are traded on the country's exchanges.

"We have been working for a long time already on arranging First Asset Management's access to India's financial market and as part of our strategy to diversify our product line we intend to offer our clients new products on the Indian and other promising emerging markets of friendly countries," First Asset Management CEO Andrei Bershadsky said in the press release.

First Asset Management (formerly Sber Asset Management) has been working on the market since 1996 and had 1.44 trillion rubles in assets under management as of September 30, 2022.