MOEX reports first FX deals by corporations with direct access to market

Russia biggest marketplace for shares, derivatives and FX – Moscow Exchange, or Moskovskaya Birzha MMVB-RTS PAO (MCX:MOEX), today announced that the first corporations to get direct access to the FX market and execute trades there are AK Alrosa PAO (MCX:ALRS) and NK Rosneft’ PAO (MCX:ROSN).

Effective January 16, 2017, Russian business entities that are not credit organizations or professional security market participants may get direct access to the Forex market. This used to be a privilege reserved only to banks and brokers.

The advantages of gaining such access include the information transparency and the opportunity to trade at the best price, as well as the presence of a central counterparty – this function is performed by the “National Clearing Centre” bank.

According to AK Alrosa PAO (MCX:ALRS), getting access to the on-exchange FX market will allow the company to enhance the efficiency of FX deals, as well as minimize expenses associated with these deals.

NK Rosneft’ PAO (MCX:ROSN) believes that the direct access to the exchange liquidity along with making use of the volumes of the interbank market will allow it to solve tasks related to liquidity management more efficiently. In addition, the inclusion of Russian companies to FX trading will lead to liquidity boost and will lower transaction costs for the participants. This should also make the market more transparent, according to Rosneft.

Igor Marich, Managing Director, Money and Derivatives Markets, MOEX, noted that the emergence of this new category of market participants corresponds to a global trend and will enable to further increase the Forex market liquidity, whereas the businesses themselves will be able to boost the effectiveness of their operations while preserving the conservative stance regarding risk-management. At this point, he added, a number of big corporations are also considering the possibility of getting access to the FX market of the Moscow Exchange.