OREANDA-NEWS. September 12, 2011. National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia's only settlement depository servicing the full range of debt and equity securities of Russian issuers, reports that on 9 September it has completed the first stage of the IT Platform Development Program with regard to implementation of ISO15022, an international standard related to electronic messaging. Formats of the orders and reports have been brought in compliance with international practice, recommendations by the Russian group of SWIFT users (National Securities Market Practice Group, NSMPG), and the customers' suggestions: redundant codes have been removed, reports have been simplified.

Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, said: "Our goal is to replace the existing formats with a generally accepted standard easy to use by either Russian participants or foreign investors. We have begun with ISO15022, and then we are going to implement ISO20022. We consider a switch to ISO standards for corporate actions as our priority task."

The following tasks have been accomplished during the first stage of the Program:
Standardized use of messages' fields (including a settlement date)
Simplified structure of orders and reports – removal of NSD's codes and fields where the codes were put
Reduced list of information requested by NSD from its depositors, including:
Removed operation code in an order
Removed initial and final dates of execution of an order; only a SETT date is to remain in an order
Only a customer's reference number is to be submitted to cancel an order
Only codes recommended by Russian NSMPG are to be used in text fields

For DVP operations NSD introduces МТ541 and МТ543 messages into its document interchange with the customers.

A limit "One BIC SWIFT – One Depository Code" is canceled for the customers' orders; now the customers are able to submit orders on different accounts using the same BIC. The customers also may get the copies of the reports through a standby channel, i.e. via either NSD's EDI system or SWIFT.

The company's customers may see the sample orders and reports in the new format at NSD's web site in Russian.