OREANDA-NEWS. February 15, 2012. On the 13th of February, 2012 clients of banks were offered an opportunity to trade on the FX Market with the use of newly implemented direct market access functionality.

On the DMA launch day the total volume of client transactions on the regulated FX Market reached 68 billion rubles which represents 9% of the aggregate FX turnover on MICEX-RTS. Nine Trading Members of the FX Market registered their clients in the trading & clearing system enabling them to trade currency on the exchange directly. So far there are 20 clients registered in the trading & clearing system including legal entities and individuals.

The first client trade on the FX Market of MICEX-RTS was executed by a client of NOMOS-BANK.

MICEX-RTS has received a positive feedback from many of the market participants.

Renaissance Capital, Dmitry Yakushin, Director of Debt Instruments, FX & Commodity Markets: "Our preliminary analysis reveals a huge interest towards direct access to the foreign exchange market. First of all, on the part of international clients – funds and algo traders. From our perspective, even judging by first estimates only, this market will grow exponentially".

"Investment Company "ITInvest", Vladimir Tvardovsky, CEO: "I would like to thank MICEX-RTS for this new service that opens up new opportunities. The demand from our clients exceeded our expectations".

NOMOS-BANK, Anna Matyushkina, Deputy Director of Brokerage Services & Asset Management:  "We see a great potential for growth and solid client volumes on this market. Small banks and companies who are our clients already are also interested in this service. And now it will be easy to connect them. This is a new opportunity to develop our business and we shall take advantage of it".

As of February 13, 2012 Trading Members of the FX Market of MICEX-RTS can register their clients in the trading & clearing system of the MICEX-RTS Group. Thanks to the DMA, any client of a Trading Member, be it a legal entity, or a private investor, a resident, or a non-resident may execute trades directly on the exchange at prices of the regulated currency market benefiting from the FX Market liquidity.

Foreign Exchange Market of MICEX-RTS is one of the key segments of the Russian financial market. Since 1992 the Bank of Russia has been determining the official exchange rate for the Russian ruble based on the results of currency trading on MICEX-RTS. FX trades on MICEX-RTS are executed in the electronic trading system during the unified trading session (UTS) that brings together regional technological centers. The exchange organizes trading in US dollar, euro, Ukrainian hryvnia, Kazakhstan tenge, Belarusian ruble, and Chinese yuan. Market participants can also execute currency swaps. In 2011 the exchange launched a new instrument – "dual currency basket of the Bank of Russia". Roughly 600 credit organizations are Trading Members of MICEX-RTS FX Market. The total trading volume on the regulated currency market reached RUB85.6 trillion, or USD2.9 trillion in 2011 (around 29% of the total turnover on the regulated markets of the MICEX-RTS Group).