The draft List of Foreign Companies Eligible for Foreign Nominee Account Opening at the Central Depositary was posted on the FFMS website on Thursday.

The documents stipulates that prior to 1 July 2014 foreign nominee accounts at the Central Depositary opened for international central depositaries or clearing systems can receive only securities issued by the Russian Federation, its subjects, municipalities or foreign issuers.

It was reported earlier that at the St Petersburg Economic Forum late last week Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said: “We welcome the Euroclear and Clearstream accounts opening at the Central Depositary ASAP, to enable foreign investors to buy our sovereign bonds. The official decision is due shortly and will be approved with FFMS”.

According to him, there are two approaches: opening access to sovereign bonds or to shares and corporate bonds.

“The sovereign bonds issue seems to be resolved. On corporate securities, the question is when – this year, in six months, in a year. I think we have reached a consensus on sovereign bonds with Pankin (Head of FFMS)”, he said.

Dmitry Pankin said last week that consultations are still underway on direct Russian market access for Euroclear and Clearstream. “We will need another week”, he said, pointing out that SROs, the Central Bank of Russia, the Ministry of Finance and MICEX-RTS all take part in the debate.

He says the sole contender for the role of the Russian central depositary is National Settlement Depositary (NSD, part of MICEX-RTS Group) may file for CD status in July, and it will take the FFMS another couple of months to come back with a decision. “The realistic time (for central depositary) is Autumn”, he said.

It has been planned that the central depositary will be active 1 July.

Pankin considers the delay in setting up the central depositary a minor issue for the market. “I think this will not have any effect. The infrastructure is vital for the support of privatization in Russia, but as long as we haven’t been given the go-ahead on privatization trades, with the current market state I don’t see how this can be a problem. Better to have it a bit later but play safe”, he said.

A source close to inter-regulatory debates said earlier that the Russian authorities can allow immediate opening of nominee accounts in the Russian central depositary for international central depositaries such as Euroclear and Clearstream for federal bonds only.

“We are talking about initially limiting international central depositaries’ access to the federal bonds market only. The plan is to time their access with the Russian central depositary becoming operational”, he said.

The Central Depositary Act has been in effect since 1 January 2012. According to the law, starting 1 July, the CD may open foreign nominee accounts for international central depositaries and national central depositaries.

The two major international central depositaries are Euroclear and Clearstream.

Market participants, especially custodians, have voiced fears that nominee accounts for settlement providers Euroclear and Clearstream will lead to liquidity draining outside Russia.

This position is backed by MICEX-RTS integrated exchange, Head of MIFC Taskforce Alexander Voloshin and the National Stock Market Participants Association (NAUFOR).

Euroclear and Clearstream account opening is supported by the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the National Stock Market Association (NFA) and the NSD itself. FFMS refuses to take sides in the dispute.

Euroclear has conducted a series of client meetings, pitching Russian securities settlement services.

Trading infrastructure, Project Group №1, Dmitry Pankin, Alexander Voloshin