OREANDA-NEWS.  February 13, 2012.  National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia's only settlement depository servicing the full range of debt and equity securities of Russian issuers, reports that a meeting of its Committee for Interactions with Registrars and Depositories held 9 Feb. considered interactions between a registrar and a central depository-nominee holder. The Committee also elaborated suggestions on interactions between depositories and a registrar considering requirements of Federal Law #414 of 7 Dec., 2011.

Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, stated: "We have a shared goal with market participants, including registrars: to provide efficient implementation of the law on the central depository in the market. To achieve this goal, we have initiated a discussion with registrars via the Committee for Interactions with Registrars and Depositories founded by NSD in 2011. We think that open, professional and detailed discussion of topical issues of interactions between the central depository, registrars and specialized depositories will lead us all to elaboration of mutually acceptable solutions for the good of issuers and market participants."

It was decided that the following issues should be analyzed thoroughly and planned beforehand:
A procedure for the assignment of a status to nominee holder accounts at the central depository
Information exchange between registrars and the central depository with regard to securities issuers meeting the requirements of Federal Law #414 of 7 Dec., 2011
Special attributes of a procedure of reconciliation held by registrars and the central depository while conducting securities operations on the personal account of the nominee holder of the central depository
Conditions for processing counter orders of the central depository and registered persons by registrars

The participants in the discussion concluded that a number of issues relating to interactions between registrars and the central depository may need to be explained by Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service, in particular:
A procedure for conducting operations on the account of the nominee holder of the central depository during corporate actions (a company's reorganization, buyback, securities placement etc)
Requirements for the format and terms of execution of transfer orders while processing counter orders by the registrar

The members of the Committee decided to form a working group including representatives of the registrars, custodians, NSD and DCC to discuss current challenges and compile suggestions on the organization of interactions between registrars and the central depository.