Moscow Stock Exchange Drafts Bill on Digital Financial Assets and Securities Trading: Report

The Russian exchange plans to become a registered digital asset exchange and start trading both digital financial assets and securities based on digital assets.

The Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) is drafting a bill to allow trading in digital financial assets (DFAs) and securities based on them, according to a report in the Russian press. The stock exchange is drafting the bill on behalf of the Russian Central Bank, which does not have the power to introduce legislation, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Thursday.

Speaking at a banking conference, MOEX Supervisory Board Chairman Sergei Shvetsov said that the draft law in preparation provides for the trading of both DFAs and DFA certificates which would trade as titles. “The exchange and its subsidiaries will apply to the regulator and hopefully they will receive the status of exchange operators” to trade DFAs, Shvetsov said. He added:

“We want the market to make its own choice between blockchain and custodian accounting, and if the law is passed, Russian custodians will be able to hold DFAs in their accounts on the blockchain – whenever the client needs the underlying asset, they redeem the certificate and receive the asset in their account on the blockchain."

Unfamiliarity is a barrier to distributed ledger technology in Russia, according to Shvetsov. "When you don't know who to call and who to sue, a lot of people don't want to participate," he said, but "it's a blank slate on which you can draw whatever you want, as needed. economy". and investors.”

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Shvetsov said the bill is currently being reviewed by the Russian Central Bank. Chairman of the State Duma Finance Committee and Head of the Russian Banking Authority...