OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2007. On December 18, the MICEX Stock Exchange has held the round-table talk "The Stock Market and the Individual Investor: A Step Towards Each Other", devoted to the results of a sociological study of the population's investment culture, MICEX' press service reported. The study was conducted in October-November this year by "Public Opinion" Fund by the order of the Exchange. The study was based on a public opinion poll involving 2.5 thousand "financially active. citizens of the Russian Federation from 204 inhabited localities in 63 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. According to the results of the study, about 50% of the respondents would "theoretically" buy stocks if they could afford it. 19% of the respondents would buy shares of investment funds." Only 5% of the respondents intend to buy shares of investment funds in the nearest future. The overwhelming majority of the respondents (90%) admitted that they needed more knowledge and information to be able to effectively invest money in securities.

According to the participants in the round table, the results of the study show that the number of individual investors in Russia can grow rapidly, which makes it all the more necessary to improve the population.s investment culture. This task can be performed through joint efforts of the state, the regulator, professional market participants, public organizations and the media. The CEO of the MICEX Stock Exchange Alexei Rybnikov said that the Exchange intended to develop a network of partners, including market participants and other interested organizations, which could help to implement programs aimed at improving the financial literacy of Russia's population.
According to Alexander Oslon, President of "Public Opinion. Fund, the results of the sociological study of the population's investment culture lead to the following conclusions:

According to the results of the study, the proportion of the financially active population amounted to 35.2% of Russia.s population or over 39 million people. This is the number of people who have relevant experience in the use of various financial instruments: bank deposits, investments in the stock market, credit products, insurance services, etc. The share of potential investors who showed the largest interest in investments in securities amounted to 15% (5.3% of the whole adult population of Russia or 5.91 million people). The results of the study show that today, the level of economic literacy of financially active citizens is not too high. The respondents were best informed about the traditional, "classical", instruments, namely: bank deposits (98% know or have heard about deposits with Sberbank, 91% know about deposits with commercial banks), real estate investments (90%) and stocks (87%). The respondents were worst informed about such modern investment instruments as investment funds, corporate bonds and bank-managed mutual funds: 47%, 61% and 72% of respondents respectively know nothing about them. A smaller proportion of the respondents were able to recall the names of major exchanges on which securities are traded. Only 18% of the respondents named the MICEX, 11% named the RTS (the names of these exchanges were known to 43% and 33% of "highly competent" respondents respectively and 34% and 23% of "potential investors" respectively). Our fellow citizens know little about the main indicators characterizing the state of the Russian stock market: 13% of the respondents named the MICEX Index and 6% named the RTS Index.

30% of the respondents would prefer to manage their investments independently. 45% would entrust their funds to professionals. Most of those who would entrust the management of their funds to specialists (38% of the sample group) would do it because they are not competent enough in this sphere. Those who would prefer to manage their investments independently cite their distrust to any intermediaries as the main argument. This distrust is shared by most respondents in this group (or 21% of the sample group).
Respondents named the possible bankruptcy of the issuer as the main risk associated with investing in stocks (32%). Every fifth (20%) respondent mentioned the possible decrease in the value of stocks as the main risk of investing in stocks. For 5% of the respondents, the main risk was the inability of receiving profit from such investments (.not to receive my share or receive low interest"). 21% of the respondents believe that you may not only not make a profit, but even lose all the money invested. 6% believe that the main risks are associated not so much with this investment instrument as with the overall situation in the country, characterized by instability or even possible crises in the economy and politics. The same number of respondents fear frauds.

Almost half of the respondents are aware, to this or that extent, that the investor bears the risks associated with investments in securities. 47% understand that when stock prices plummet no one is obliged to compensate shareholders for their losses. However, more than a third of the respondents (37%) are convinced that in such a case the sate is obliged to compensate shareholders for their losses. It is clear that these people do not understand or are not willing to assume financial responsibility for their behavior. The study revealed the prevailing distrust to the state and the financial system: 65% of the respondents believe that investors are not protected by the law, while 22% had difficulty answering this question.

The study revealed dramatic shortage of information about investing possibilities in the media: 37% of the respondents said they never came across this information, 34% think there is not enough of this information and only 15% said there was enough information about investing in the media. Of those who find this information in the media, more than half (or 32% of the sample group) said that it was usually too difficult to understand. Many would like to learn .all there is to know about stocks in plain Russian. Only a small proportion of those who consume this information can understand it easily (21% of the sample group). 44% of the respondents in all segments of the sample group named television as the most convenient source of information about investing. The second most convenient source of information is the press (22%), the third is the Internet (12%) and the fourth is the radio (5%). Other respondents named such sources as professionals, friends, special literature and banks (1% each). "Potential shareholders. cited the Internet as a convenient source of information even more often (22%) than the press (17%). "Highly competent" respondents cited the Internet as often as printed editions (23 and 25% respectively).

Financial culture among adolescents is only incipient. However, the results of the study show that many teenagers have certain understanding of the investment business and financial instruments, although their level of competence is, of course, slightly lower than that of adults. Most respondents (86%) know of such form of investment as deposits with Sberbank. About half cited such financial instruments as real estate, deposits with commercial banks and investments in stocks. About one quarter of teenagers said they could learn about stocks and the rules of trading and investing at school. Most of the respondents said they were never given classes in these subjects. According to the results of the study, teenagers are active users of the Internet: 39% use it on a weekly basis, another 11% use once a month. However, only 2% of the respondents said they could find information about finances and investing in the World Wide Web. Few of the respondents were able to name particular web sites.

Speaking at the round table, the CEO of MICEX Stock Exchange Alexei Rybnikov said that recently the Russian stock market has made a breakthrough. The number of individual investors doubles each year. On December 1, 2007, there were over 400 thousand unique clients (individuals) registered in the trading system of the MICEX Stock Exchange. This means, said the head of the Exchange, that in a few years, the number of individual investors will amount to millions. This makes the problem of investors. training and the issue of the general financial culture of Russia's population ever more important. "Investors entering the stock market should be well-trained and realize the importance of their investment decisions and the risks existing in the stock market."