ALTHAUS Group and Moscow Exchange held conference “Digital Bonds: Evolving Legal Regulation and Technology”

ALTHAUS Group and Moscow Exchange held conference “Digital Bonds: Evolving Legal Regulation and Technology”

ALTHAUS Group and Moscow Exchange held conference “Digital Bonds: Evolving Legal Regulation and Technology”
  • 27 December 2017

Jointly organized by ALTHAUS Group and Moscow Exchange the event attracted over 100 representatives of major Russian corporates and financial institutions, such as Ak Bars, Aeroflot, Vimpelcom, Gazprom, Sukhoi, EuroChem, Megafon, Metalloinvest, MOEK, MTS, NLMK, Freight One, Rosatom, Rosgosstrakh , RZD, Rosneft, Rostelecom, Transneft, SIBUR Holding, as well as banks Alfa-Bank, Vnesheconombank, VTB24, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Raiffeisenbank, Rosbank, Russian Agricultiral Bank, Sberbank of Russia and Sberbank CIB.

Anna Vasilenko, Managing director for primary market development and client support at Moscow Exchange, and Rostislav Shatenok, Managing partner at ALTHAUS Group, opened the conference and welcomed the participants. 

Ilya Smirnov, Partner at ALTHAUS Legal, talked about evolving legal regulation of bond issue in digital economy. Ilya brought up legal aspects of bond issue, historical background of improvements in Russian securities’ legislation, and prospects for legal regulation. Special attention was drawn to the latest draft law intended to improve securities’ issue procedure.  

Ilya’s presentation was continued by Irina Osiyuk, Head of the Equity Securities Division, Corporate Banking Department of the Bank of Russia. She highlighted issue of electronic document circulation within the procedure for issuing securities and the Bank of Russia's expertise in this area.

In his report “New NSD Technology. Blockchain”, Alexander Chekanov, chief NSD Architect, analyzed the main risks of using digital technology in issue procedures and shared experience of the National Settlement Depository in organizing a decentralized blockchain platform for placing “MegaFon” bonds.

Continuing on the same topic, Maxim Romankov, Head of Securities Access Authority at Moscow Exchange, told about the issue of exchange bonds in electronic form.

In conclusion, Igor Fedotov, senior attorney at ALTHAUS Group, emphasized for the event participants the expected changes in legislation, novelties in listing procedure, as well as requirements to securities prospectus and information disclosure. In addition Igor mentioned changes proposed in the draft “Amendments to Federal Law ‘On Countering Illegal Use of Insider Information’ ”, which is planned to enter into force early 2019. 

“We believe that the issues of legal regulation of the debt market are of great importance today both in connection with the rapid development of technology and in the light of government policy to promote digital economy. We are pleased with an opportunity to share our experience and exchange views with representatives of the issuers, the regulator, and market infrastructure organizations,” said Ilya Smirnov, Partner at ALTHAUS Group, summing up the results of the conference.

The event was broadcast live at the ALTHAUS Group page  in Facebook.

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