MARKET PERFORMANCE

Equity & Bond Market

The Equity and Bond Market is a liquidity center for operations with Russian securities and the main platform for Russian companies to raise capital. MOEX is a leading venue for issuance and trading of shares and depositary receipts of Russian and foreign shares; government, regional and corporate bonds; Bank of Russia bonds; sovereign and corporate Eurobonds; mutual funds (PIFs), ETFs, Russian-law ETFs and mortgage participation certificates.

Trading results

Total trading volume on the Equity Market rose by 25.5% to RUB 30.0 trillion in 2021, reaching an all-time record high.

In particular, the volume of trading in shares of Russian and “quasi-Russian” companies increased by 22% to RUB 28.5 trillion. The trading volume of exchange-traded funds doubled to RUB 611 billion, reaching its highest level ever.

A record inflow of retail investors, extension of trading hours due to the introduction of pre-market trading and development of after-hours trading, as well as a significant increase in the number of instruments traded, including international stocks and exchange-traded funds, contributed to the increase in trading volume on the market.

Total trading volume on the Bond Market decreased by 26.7% to RUB 22.4 trillion in 2021, of which RUB 10 trillion was traded on the secondary market. In 2021, bonds worth RUB 11.9 trillion were placed, including 176 bond issuers (including 60 first-time issuers) placing 618 bonds for a total of RUB 3.3 trillion.

In 2021, the MOEX Russia Index and RTS Index added 15%. By the end of 2021, the MOEX Russia Index was 3,787. The index reached a record high of 4,287.52 on 20 October 2021.

Attracting retail investors

The number of individuals with brokerage accounts on Moscow Exchange increased by almost 13 million in 2021 and reached 27.4 million people. The number of opened individual investment accounts increased by 1.5 million reaching 4.86 million by the end of the year.

The share of retail investors in trading remained at 41%. They are the most active participants of after-hours trading with the volume traded after-hours reaching RUB 2.4 trillion (versus RUB 802 billion in 2020). The volume of pre-market trading generated by retail investors is RUB 153 million.

Private investor activity is growing rapidly. In 2021, 7.2 million clients traded on the Equity Market, with more than 550,000 investors trading daily, 2.5 times more than in 2020.

A total of 1.3 million individual investors traded on the Bond Market in 2021 (+ 60% YoY). The volume of retail bond investments in 2021 was RUB 820 billion (by net turnover on MOEX), up 33% YoY.

International securities

In 2021, the list of available securities expanded each month. A total of 466 shares and depositary receipts of the best known and largest companies in the US and other countries were admitted. By the end of 2021, a total of 521 international stocks and depositary receipts were available for trading. Forty-nine new corporate Eurobonds were also offered. The total number of listed Eurobonds reached 115 issues. The average daily trading volume of Eurobonds in 2021 exceeded RUB 1 billion (+24% YoY).

The trading volume of international stocks in 2021 amounted to RUB 726 billion (RUB 86 billion in 2020), with more than 290,000 investors having traded international stocks during the year.

In September 2021, investors were able to execute trades in the currency of their choice as settlement of trades in US dollars was made available.

During the year, great efforts were made to improve the quality of services related to trading and administrating international stocks. The terms of tax administration for dividends on international stocks were improved:

• from 1 August 2021 to 31 January 2022, NSD run a marketing promotion whereby no fees are charged for accepting and recognizing Individual Identification Form W-8BEN when paying income on US securities
• from 1 October 2021 to 30 June 2022, there will be no fee for services related to acceptance and recognition of Individual Identification Form W-8BEN for income payment on US securities submitted to NSD;
• a marketing period was established to reduce the fee from RUB 2,000 to RUB 300 for services related to processing of tax disclosure forms for payments of income on foreign securities, provided that the tax disclosure form is filed from 1 January to 31 December 2022.

NSD launched a new service for professional market participants, banks and brokerage firms, that provide access to trading in international securities on the Exchange. The service allows NSD to automate the process of accepting electronic individual identification Form W-8BEN when paying income on US securities. Data will be exchanged between NSD and professional participants through the OpenAPI protocol. By using the service, banks and brokers will be able to provide non-U.S. retail investors with the option to complete Form W-8BEN directly in their personal accounts or a mobile application.

In September, NCC was granted the status of Qualified Derivatives Dealer (QDD) by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS). QDD status allows Moscow Exchange to facilitate trading in US securities for banks and brokers, as well as on the Money Market. Professional traders are able to make better use of the margin trading mechanism on MOEX’s Equity Market for their retail clients. With this status, NCC is now able to administer dividend equivalent income on US securities, in particular income transferred in a repo transaction, where the record date for the dividend falls between the dates of the first and second parts of the repo. This eliminates cascading tax when income is transferred through a chain of repo transactions. Furthermore, NCC relieves the buyer under the first part of the repo transaction from having to make withholding by its own. The tax administration of dividend payments without QDD status does not comply with US law.

From 27 September 2021, NCC has accepted international securities as collateral for trades executed on MOEX’s markets. This allows professional market participants and their clients more flexibility in funding their operations on MOEX.

On 25 October 2021, Moscow Exchange expanded opportunities for Money Market participants to enter into repo transactions with the CCP in international securities and clearing participation certificates, as well as direct repo transactions with the CCP. From 25 October, banks and brokers can conclude repo transactions in international securities even if the record date for a dividend is between the settlement dates of the repo’s first and second parts.

On 6 December 2021, the most liquid international stocks and DRs were offered for pre-market trading. In addition, the technical launch of the Foreign Liquidity Links on the Securities Market project took place. The functionality for submitting quotes from liquidity providers via the FIX protocol became available.

The trading calendar was also changed. The Exchange has decided that international securities (with the -RM postfix) are traded on official public holidays, if they are available for trading on the market they were listed first on these days. In addition, trading and settlement days in RUB and USD order books were synchronised for securities with the-RM postfix. This technology has been introduced from 1 January 2022.

Exchange-traded funds

In 2021, exchange-traded funds grew rapidly. The total trading volume of exchange-traded funds doubled versus 2020 to RUB 612 billion, while the net asset value exceeded RUB 313 billion, showing an inflow of RUB 155 billion for 2021.

At the end of 2021, 138 exchange-traded funds were available on the Exchange, of which 75 Russian-law and eight ETFs were listed in 2021. ETFs have become widely popular among retail investors due to their high diversification in terms of investment instruments: they offer investments in instruments from 50 countries worldwide. MOEX offers ETFs with different asset management methods: “passive investing”, “smart beta” and “managed investing”.

In 2021, a gold ETF was launched, linked to the price of gold on the MOEX Precious Metals Market. Money Market ETFs have been becoming more popular. August 2021 saw the launch of trading in the Russian-law ETF on RUSFAR tracking the value of secured money and is calculated by the Exchange based on the most Zliquid segment of the market, CCP-cleared repo in General Collateral Certificates.

The ETF line pertaining responsible investing was actively developed. Several companies created funds with an ESG investment strategy in 2021.

In November, shares of the first Russian-law ETF on the MOEX Shariah Index, ‘Halal Investments’, started trading. The MOEX Shariah Index is based on the selection of securities of issuers that have passed a verification procedure for compliance with Islamic principles.

Expanding trading hours

From 6 December 2021, the trading day on the Moscow Exchange Equity Market has been extended by three hours to include a morning trading session. Trading on the market now run for 17 hours a day, from 6:50 am to 11:50 pm Moscow time. Clients in the Siberia and Far East as well as the Asia-Pacific region can now benefit from more convenient trading hours offered by MOEX. Market participants are able to respond more quickly to changing global market dynamics and implement additional trading and arbitrage opportunities in the morning hours.

By the end of the year, all shares and depositary receipts on Russian stocks from the MOEX Russia Index as well as the 50 most liquid international stocks were admitted to pre-market trading. The second stage will involve admission of ETFs and Russian-law ETF.

The pre-market trading volume in 2021 was RUB 154 billion; the after-hours trading volume was RUB 2.4 trillion. The share of these additional sessions in 2021 exceeded 8.5% of total trading volume on the Equity Market.

In March 2021, updates to the INAV calculation method allowed admission of ETFs and Russian-law ETFs with rapidly growing INAV (where the market for the underlying asset included in that ETFs is traded in parallel with the fund) to after-hours trading. At the end of 2021, 64% of all ETFs traded on MOEX were also admitted to after-hours trading.

On 27 September 2021, after-hours trading in bonds became available on MOEX. Investors can now trade Russian government bonds (OFZ) and Eurobonds from 19:00 to 23:50 MSK.

In 2021, more than 45,000 clients traded after-hour on the Bond Market. One in six retail investors traded OFZs after-hours. Individuals accounted for 60% of the trading volume of the evening session. In December 2021, the average daily trading volume increased by 33% MoM to RUB 158 million.

Boosting liquidity

On 1 May 2021, Moscow Exchange launched a new marketing promotion for equities aimed at developing financial literacy and popularising investment in Equity Market instruments. As part of the program, Moscow Exchange refunded trading participants half of the fee paid in excess of the established threshold for individual clients’ transactions. The threshold for calculating the premium was set to be the volume-related fee on client transactions executed in Q1 2021. To calculate the premium for the second quarter of 2021, transactions executed also in April 2021, were taken into account.

To stimulate additional liquidity during pre-market trading, Moscow Exchange also held a Wake Up MOEX competition for participants of the morning trading session on the Equity Market. The competition was held during the morning trading session (from 7:00 am to 09:50 am) from 6 December 2021 to 4 February 2022 inclusive. Individuals and trading members took part in the competition. There were separate awards for each category.

The year 2021 saw the launch of two OTC bond market products at once. First, the Exchange launched OTC order books with the CCP on Eurobonds (non-listed) for qualified investors. This will significantly expand the list of international bonds available for trading for this category of participants. Second, the Exchange launched settlement services via the CCP for paired orders resulting from OTC transactions of voice brokers.

Four new market maker programs were launched in 2021:

• MOEX GLOBAL USD program for international securities with settlement in USD during the main and evening trading sessions;
• three market maker programs for pre-market trading on the Equity Market - for securities of both Russian and international issuers (“Good Morning”, “Good Morning MG RUB”, “Good Morning MG USD”).

A total of eight programs were up and running at the end of 2021, covering all trading periods: pre-market, main trading session and after-hours trading.

During the year, there was also active development of tripartite individual market-making agreements involving issuers and management companies. For certain ETFs the agreements were concluded on two or even three trading modes with different settlement currencies.

Attracting SMEs

In order to encourage small and medium-sized companies to enter the public market, Moscow Exchange operates the Growth Sector, which aims to raise funding for the most promising companies in the real economy, expand the list of instruments traded on the financial market and diversify investors’ investments.

The Growth Sector is supported by the Federal Corporation for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME Corporation), SME Bank and the Russian Ministry of Economic Development. The Bank of Russia is the main partner in this project.

As part of the Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurship national project, supporting incentives are available to SME issuers. In order to implement the mechanism to compensate SME issuers for the costs of going public, subsidies are provided to reimburse the issuers’ expenses on the services of book runners and rating agencies, as well as on the payment of coupon income on bonds.

SMEs will also receive support in the form of sureties/guarantees for bond issues from SME Corporation and participation of SME Bank as a co-organiser and anchor investor.

In 2021, 17 issuers received RUB 24.65 million in pre-listing subsidies and 20 transactions received coupon interest subsidies totalling RUB 128.3 million.

Moscow Exchange provides support to SME issuers. From 1 January 2020, a preferential listing fee is in effect for SME issuers placing bonds in the Growth Sector, and from 27 April 2020, SME issuers are not charged for listing bonds up to RUB 400 million (the preferential period has been extended to 31 December 2022). In 2021, the volume of SME bond placements in the Growth Sector totalled RUB 7.9 billion, which is RUB 2.9 billion higher than the national project target.

Innovation and Investment Market

Moscow Exchange successfully operates the Innovation and Investment Market (IIM), which was created to to promote investment in the innovation sector of the Russian economy.

By the end of 2021, 28 securities were traded in the IIM Sector. The total capitalisation of the sector amounted to about RUB 460 billion. In 2021, total trading volumes in the IIM Sector exceeded RUB 300 billion (+20% YoY).

In order to encourage technology companies to enter the stock exchange, the following government support tools have been envisaged:

• tax relief on income from the sale or other disposal of shares, bonds of Russian organisations, investment units that are securities of the high-tech (innovative) sector of the economy, provided that they have been continuously owned by the taxpayer for at least one year as of the date of their sale;
• within the framework of the initiative “Takeoff - from Startup to IPO” approved by the Government of the Russian Federation in December 2021, small innovative enterprises will be provided with grant support to co-finance innovative projects from the Federal State Institution “Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology”.

Listing of securities

MOEX is constantly working to increase the quality of securities included in its quotation lists by improving issuing procedures and encouraging issuers to adhere to best practices of corporate governance. This work is aimed at increasing the transparency and attractiveness of the Russian stock market and protecting the interests of retail and institutional investors.

In 2021, work continued to inform investors about the quality of traded securities: 60 securities of 46 issuers were included in the Increased Investment Risk Companies Sector.

The Sustainability Sector, which targets securities placed to raise funds to finance or refinance environmental and socially important projects, has been enriched with new segments and requirements.

This enabled 9 issuers to place bonds in the sector that comply with international green and social finance principles (International Capital Market Association (ICMA), Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), Social Bond Principles (SBP), as well as the Russian taxonomy of adaptation projects.

Moscow Exchange actively works with SMEs to support the development of the respective national project. For three consecutive years, Moscow Exchange has provided listing services to SME issuers at preferential rates.

In 2021, a tariff model was developed to provide issuers with accelerated registration of programs to issue exchange-registered bonds, as well as accelerated preliminary review of documents for these services.

As of the end of 2021, 3,548 securities of 1,208 issuers were admitted to trading, including 804 shares and depositary receipts of 754 issuers and 2,495 bonds of 476 issuers.

The Exchange’s quotation lists include 1,172 securities of 256 issuers: the Level 1 includes 795 securities of 162 issuers and the Level 2 includes 377 securities of 120 issuers.

In 2021, the following equity issuers entered Moscow Exchange: Fix Price, Segezha, EMC, Renaissance Insurance, Softline, CIAN, GMC Group and Positive Group.

DERIVATIVES MARKET

Moscow Exchange’s Derivatives Market is Russia’s largest and one of the world’s leading venues for derivatives trading. The market brings together deep liquidity, a broad product offering, performance guarantees from the Central Counterparty and state-of-the-art technologies for the trading of futures and options. Underlying assets include equity indices, shares of Russian and international issuers, federal government bonds (OFZs), currencies, interest rates and commodities (oil, precious and industrial metals, and agricultural products).

The year 2021 saw a range of upgrades, from expanded trading hours to the launch of new futures and options contracts on indices and international securities, amid a massive influx of retail clients to the market.

By year-end 2021, the number of active clients rose 31% YoY to more than 122,000. The number of accounts registered on the Derivatives Market exceeded 6.3 million (+50%, or +2.1 million new accounts). Importantly, approximately half of the trading participants (43%) were individuals.

Trading volumes

In 2021, total trading volumes on the Derivatives Market amounted to RUB 158 trln (versus RUB 129.9 trln 2020), including futures trading volumes of RUB 151.2 trln and options trading volumes of RUB 5.8 trln.

In 2021, the trading volume increased by 22% YoY. The growth leaders were commodity contracts (+41% YoY), due to the high volatility in energy prices. Index and single stock contracts also grew (+36%). The most liquid contracts, the Brent oil and the RTS Index futures, saw trading volumes increase by 39% and 29%, respectively. The largest increase in trading volumes, up six times, was recorded in gas futures. The FX section, which is the most popular section of the market, increased by 5%.

In 2021, open interest increased even more significantly: it was half as much as in 2020. By the end of 2021, the average daily open interest on the Derivatives Market increased by 50% YoY to RUB 838 billion.

New product offering

In 2021, the Derivatives Market continued to actively develop a range of derivatives on various types of assets in order to provide additional trading opportunities for both private clients and professional participants and portfolio managers, as well as to hedge investment portfolios. At the beginning of 2022, 82 futures and 47 options were traded on the Derivatives Market.

Trading in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust futures and options was launched in May. In just one year, the contract has become one of the most liquid contracts on the market. Options on this futures contract were launched in July 2021. In the short time since its launch, the new futures entered the top 10 instruments of the Derivatives Market, with daily turnover exceeding RUB 16 billion. Trading in futures on Alibaba and Baidu depositary receipts was launched in the summer.

In 2021, Moscow Exchange significantly expanded its range of single-stock derivatives. Options on futures on X5, Tinkoff, Mail.ru, Sistema, Inter RAO, Polymetal and Yandex shares as well as futures and options on OZON shares were launched.

The first futures contract on a company from the construction sector of the Russian economy, PIK-SZ futures, was introduced in the stock section of the Derivatives Market. At the beginning of 2022, the Exchange launched a futures contract on the Moscow Real Estate Index, which will enable investment funds and private investors to implement strategies aimed at profiting from changes in real estate prices.

A mini RTS futures contract became available to private investors, with a feature that the nominal volume of the contract is 10 times smaller than that of the classic RTS Index futures.

The money section of the Derivatives Market now accounts for almost half of the average daily trading volume. Currency pair contracts are the most popular with all types of investors. Cross-currency futures (Euro-Japanese yen, Euro-British pound, Euro-Canadian dollar) were launched at the end of the year.

Technological development

The main technological solution for 2021 was the start of an pre-market trading session from 7am MSK on the Derivatives Market, which made the MOEX Derivatives Market more accessible to participants from the eastern and far eastern regions of our country and provided an opportunity to react more quickly to changes in global market conditions.

FX MARKET

Moscow Exchange FX Market is a liquidity center for operations with the Russian ruble and a crucial element of the Russian financial system. The Bank of Russia relies on the FX Market to implement monetary policy and sets the official USD/RUB rate using results of trading on the FX Market. In a challenging pandemic, the exchange infrastructure is showing its advantages in terms of risk management technology, reliability of transactions and guaranteed settlement. In 2021, the share of MOEX’s FX Market in the total volume of FX operations made by Russian banks across all currency pairs was on average 43%, in particular, 52% in USD/RUB trading and 65% in EUR/ RUB trading Calculated based on data from the Bank of Russia: main indicators of Russian currency market (according to the Bank of Russia methodology). URL: https://cbr.ru/statistics/finr/ .

The FX Market is a global electronic platform (e-FX MOEX) which, according to annual FX Survey 2021 by Euromoney, was ranked:

• #2 in customer satisfaction among international MDPs;
• #4 in Best ECN category.

Trading volumes

FX Market

In 2021, the gradual growth of the Russian economy and a more predictable pandemic contributed to a reduction in volatility and speculative counterparty activity in the Russian currency market, which was reflected in the stabilisation of on-exchange FX turnover compared to the previous year. In 2021, trading volumes on the FX Market were RUB 320 trln, up 3% YoY. Spot trading volumes decreased by 2% to RUB 95 trln, and swap trading volumes was down 3% to RUB 225 trln.

The structure of trading remained almost unchanged. The spot/swap ratio was 30/70%, similar to the 2020 ratio. There was a slight diversification in the currency trading structure shifting from the main currency pairs USD/RUB and EUR/RUB in favour of the other currency pairs. For instance, volumes in TRY/RUB (up 3.4 times), KZT/RUB (up 2.8 times), and GBP/RUB (up 20%) grew faster. Trading volumes in EUR/USD (up 1.5 times), GBP/USD (up 2.3 times), USD/CNY (+40%) and other currency pairs grew actively in the liquidity service from foreign providers.

Precious Metals Market

In 2021, the physical volume of transactions increased 4.1 times YoY to 48.5 tonnes for gold, and 1.6 times to 40.2 tonnes for silver. In cash terms, the total trading volume in precious metals quadrupled to RUB 209.2 billion (RUB 52.6 billion in 2020).

OTC services development

In 2021, Moscow Exchange consistently expanded opportunities for FX Market participants and their clients to access global OTC markets and best prices using the Exchange’s infrastructure and continued to develop new customised services for receiving and providing liquidity adopted in international OTC market practices.

At the end of June, new instruments were launched in the “Clearing via the CCP” mode (CPCL board): new currency pairs US Dollar – Chinese June, British pound – Russian Ruble, British Pound – US Dollar, Swiss franc – Russian Ruble and US Dollar – Swiss franc were introduced.

In September, it became possible to enter into swap transactions in currency pairs Euro – US Dollar and British Pound – US Dollar through Request for Stream (RFS) technology from the world’s largest banks which are liquidity providers, with settlement through a central counterparty (CCP).

In addition, market participants are now able to clear OTC swap transactions with the CCP executed via OTC e-platforms. Previously, clearing of OTC trades with the CCP was available only for spot instruments. The new functionality will improve liquidity management and minimise credit and settlement risks by leveraging reliable exchange and settlement infrastructure.

MOEX’s Precious Metals market participants have gained access to global gold market liquidity. In September, spot transactions at London gold market prices (Loco London, an XAU/USD instrument with T+2 settlement) were made available. Trades are executed in an automated mode via the central counterparty, subject to the single limit and netting of liabilities.

Efforts to develop and promote OTC services have had an impact on the growth of participant activity in these segments:

• in 2021, the volume of transactions in links (OTCTs, OTCFs, swaps) increased by more than 90%, exceeding RUB 2 trillion;
• in RFS mode the volume of spot transactions increased almost sevenfold, amounting to more than RUB 300 billion;
• in December, the total volume of transactions in all OTC modes exceeded USD 4.8 billion.

Technology initiatives, expanding the range of instruments and trading hours

Pre-market trading on FX and Precious Metals Markets

From March 2021, Moscow Exchange FX and Precious Metals Markets start trading at 7 am MSK. The extension of the trading period to 17 hours is part of a strategy to move closer to the 24/5 time frame of the OTC FX market. Clients in the Siberia and Far East can now benefit from more convenient trading hours offered by MOEX. On average for March to December 2021, the share of spot trades between 7:00 and 10:00 am in total spot transactions was more than 8%.

Along with the early launch of trading, when liquidity is lower, a restriction on aggressive orders was introduced. The Exchange began to limit market orders for major currency pairs when the order exercise price deviated by 0.5% from the best bid/offer available at the time of order submission, and by 1.0% for less liquid currencies.

At the beginning of December, to improve the efficiency of market pricing and reduce the risk of significant fluctuations, an opening auction for all spot instruments was launched in the morning hours of the FX Market from 6:50 am to 7:00 am Moscow time.

Launching “small lots” trading

In recent years one of the main principles of the MOEX FX Market development has been the multi-variant offer of order execution services for different volumes and types of clients.

At the end of April, to make trading more convenient for individuals, MOEX launched US Dollar - Russian Ruble and Euro - Russian Ruble instruments with a lot of one cent, which allowed making conversion transactions from one to 1,000 dollars or euro. These innovations have expanded opportunities for individuals, including in foreign securities trading with respect to coupon and dividend payments, as well as conversion transaction on the individual investment accounts.

Instruments in small lots have complemented the range of trading modes in the FX market, and each client category now has a full range of services and products, from large block trading for banks, corporates and brokers to small lot transactions for retail investors.

With the growth of retail investor transactions and the development of international securities trading, liquidity in the small lot order book began to grow rapidly, with 50 participants operating by the end of the year and volumes exceeding USD 2.9 million in December.

Development of TWAP services

The expansion of the product line and technological innovations provide participants with additional opportunities for diversification of operations and risk management, and help to increase the liquidity of the exchange-based FX market and the efficiency of participants.

Last year saw the launch of the TWAP (Time Weighted Average Price) algorithm, a new way of submitting orders that allows for the uniform realisation of a given volume within a selected timeframe.In December 2021, the average daily trading volume via the TWAP orders more than doubled YoY, exceeding USD 230 million.

Expansion of the client base

Attracting private clients

The development of digital technologies, remote identification and online customer registration systems, existing tax incentives and increased financial literacy of the population have contributed to the mass entry of individuals into financial markets. In 2021, private investors’ interest in conversion transactions and investments in foreign currency assets was an important factor in the development of the MOEX FX market.

At the end of the year, the number of registered clients exceeded 16 million increasing twofold YoY (December 2020: 8 million clients). The number of active clients since September 2021 has exceeded 1 million.

In 2021, retail spot turnover was approximately RUB 24 trillion, with a 12.4% share of spot transactions (average for 2020: 12.3%).

Since 29 March, it has been possible to establish qualified investor status online on the FX and Equity Markets. In addition, brokers and banks can quickly issue cross-trade authorisations to their clients, which market participants will now also be able to do online.

With the development of remote access technology, individuals are now able to open a brokerage account online on MOEX’s marketplace. Beginner investors can complete training at the Moscow Exchange School, which runs online courses with leading financial experts and experienced traders (https://school.moex.com/#/). Public education is also provided as part of the Bank of Russia’s Online Financial Literacy Lessons project, the Literate Investor webinars and online classes for the older people.

Access for corporations

Much attention was paid to interaction and development of services (RFS, TWAP, etc.) aimed at new groups of FX Market clients: corporations, insurance companies, asset management companies and funds.

Last year, the following companies were admitted to trading on the FX Market: August LLC, BIOCAD CJSC, EFCO JSC, Sportmaster LLC, Adepta MC and Ferronordic Machines LLC. At the end of 2021, 45 corporations, including insurance companies, had access to the Exchange’s FX Market. Total corporate turnover doubled over the year, exceeding RUB 3.6 trillion. Average daily turnover of corporations in December 2021 reached USD 316 million (December 2020: USD 138 million).

Four asset management companies gained access to the FX Market in 2021: VTB Capital Asset Management, Tinkoff Capital, Adepta Asset Management and Maximum Asset Management.

A special multi-asset web interface (corporate marketplace) - MOEX Treasury (MXT) with access to the FX Market products and services has been developed for corporate clients.

In 2021, the Federal Treasury continued to trade overnight currency swaps (lending rubles against US dollars) on the FX Market.

International presence and attracting international investors

Last year, Moscow Exchange actively worked with foreign clients to attract major international banks offering clearing as ICMs (International Clearing Members) and non-resident clients through the SMA (Sponsored Market Access) scheme via Russian brokers to the FX Market.

• Over 26,000 non-resident clients from 140 countries were registered on Moscow Exchange’s FX Market at year-end.
• In 2021, the number of active non-resident clients increased 1.5 times on average, exceeding 2,000.
• In 2021, the turnover of non-resident SMA and ICM transactions grew by 13%, exceeding RUB 40 trillion (2020: RUB 35 trillion). Six trading members registered around 80 SMA logins for clients.
• Despite the growth in volumes under the SMA and ICM schemes, the overall share of non-resident spot clients in 2021 declined slightly to 36% (2020 average: 42.7%), due to faster growth in trading volumes by Russian investors, including by attracting new client segments to the exchange market and providing them with modern instruments and services.

The Exchange’s FX Market was promoted to global markets; and active work with non-residents was carried out through conferences and forums such as FX Week, TradeTech, FX Hive, regular publications in the e-FOREX magazine and participation in the annual FX Survey of Euromoney magazine.

Interaction with Eurasian institutions on the development of the EAEU integrated currency market (EAEU ICM) and transactions in national currencies was expanding. Technological cooperation with stock exchanges and infrastructure financial institutions of Kazakhstan, Belarus and other countries played an important role in this area.

The Exchange continued to work actively on the development of the EAEU ICM. In 2021, Arvand Bank (Tajikistan) was granted access to the FX Market. A total of 19 banks from the EAEU/EurAsEC countries, including two international financial institutions, had direct access to the MOEX FX Market at the beginning of 2022: Interstate Bank and Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). In 2021, the turnover of the EAEU ICM members was RUB 2.6 trillion (2020: RUB 2.7 trillion). Banks from the EAEU countries operated in new segments: links with foreign providers and RFS. SberBank (Belarus) and EDB are market makers for the Belarusian ruble and Kazakh tenge.

Expanding the toolkit with ruble currency pairs with the national currencies of the EAEU, BRICS and other countries is one of the important areas of the MOEX FX Market development. Moscow Exchange is actively working to develop trading in national currencies. In 2021 the volume of on-exchange transactions grew 2.8 times for KZT/RUB and 3.4 times for TRY/RUB. Liquid on-exchange markets stimulates the use of national currencies in cross-border economic activity.

Precious Metals Market

There are 67 companies trading on the Precious Metals Market: 47 banks, 3 asset management companies, 3 gold mining companies, 13 professional securities market participants (brokerage companies and their clients) and the Bank of Russia. In 2021, the following asset management companies entered the Precious Metals Market: VTB Capital Investments, Tinkoff Capital and Alfa Capital.

Since the end of June, participants can deposit precious metals (gold and silver) as collateral for repo transactions with clearing participation certificates (GCC) in a separately created property pool, GCC GC Metal. Adding precious metals will expand the list of assets accepted as collateral and used for GCC repo which will allow participants to manage liquidity more efficiently.

Since the end of October, the lot size in GLDRUB_TOM has been reduced to 1 g and participants trading GCC repo can now post precious metals to the GS Expanded pool.

MONEY MARKET

Moscow Exchange’s Money Market is one of the most important segments of the Russian financial market through which market participants carry out cash liquidity management, the Bank of Russia implements monetary policy, and the Federal Treasury deposits funds of the federal budget and, funds of the Single Treasury Account.

The key segment of the Money Market is repo transactions with the Central Counterparty (CCP), performed by NCC, which guarantees fulfilment of obligations before all participants. Repo with the CCP in general collateral certificates (GCC) is also available and is now the most widely traded segment on the Money Market.

Trading volumes

In 2021, total Money Market trading volumes amounted to RUB 474 trln, up 11.1% YoY.

Repo trading volumes totalled RUB 418.5 trln, accounting for 88% of total Money Market volumes; trading volumes of non-CCP deposit and credit transactions totalled RUB 55.5 trln.

The year-on-year increase in total market trading volumes was the result of a 11.3 increase (to RUB 354.8 trln) in the volume of repo transactions with the CCP. The average daily open position in repos with the CCP in 2021 increased by 30% to RUB 4.76 trln.

GCC repo continues to be the major repo product in 2021: trading volumes increased by 11.6% YoY to RUB 83.8 trln, and the average daily open position added 60% to RUB 1.5 trln.

In April 2020, Federal Treasury funds began to be deposited with the CCP via auctions. The volume of deposited funds in 2021 totalled RUB 14.3 trln.

Expanding the range of instruments

In order to provide participants of the repo market with a more flexible approach to liquidity management, MOEX implemented the following projects in 2021:

• The Federal Treasury is allowed to make repo transactions with the CCP in OFZs and government Eurobonds;
• the Federal Treasury is now able to place Treasury Single Account funds as part of on-exchange transactions;
• market participants were given an opportunity to conclude negotiated repo transactions in after-hours trading;
• repo transactions in GCC became available to unqualified investors;
• opportunities to make long-term repo transactions in Eurobonds and foreign securities were expanded;
• tenge-denominated bonds were admitted to trading on the CCP repo market;
• precious metals (gold and silver) can be deposited in GCC collateral pools;
• the clearing terminal is integrated into MOEX Treasury;
• MOEX Treasury has a news widget and a prototype of an “aggregated order book” of the CCP deposit market.

Attracting new categories of participants

MOEX continued to expand direct access to the Money Market for Russian legal entities that are not professional securities market participants.

In 2021, new categories of clients were admitted to the CCP Deposit Market: regional authorities and non-residents from EAEU countries. The Finance Committee of St Petersburg started regular deposit auctions with the CCP in April 2021.

In addition, a number of innovations have been implemented that broaden the scope for corporate clients to operate in the Money Market:

• non-state pension funds as participants of the CCP Deposit Market have been allowed place not only their own funds but also funds from the pension reserves;
• Asset management companies have been allowed to deposit funds of closed-end mutual funds and exchange-traded mutual funds with the CCP without any time limitation;
• Asset management companies have been allowed to deposit funds of endowment funds, pension savings and pension reserves with the CCP.

A total of 28 companies, including production companies, insurance companies, management companies and non-state pension funds, were admitted to trading on the CCP Deposit Market in 2021. The total number of participants in this market reached 148, and the total volume of transactions amounted to RUB 18.4 trillion.

COMMODITIES MARKETS

MOEX promotes commodities trading through two key commodities markets: precious metals and agricultural. Precious metals are traded on the MOEX FX Market platform, while trading in agricultural products is operated by the National Mercantile Exchange (NAMEX), part of the Moscow Exchange Group

On-exchange trading in agricultural products

In August 2021, trading in wheat on the commodity auction market started. Commodity auctions are a simplified mechanism for trading new products with direct admission to trading for customers and auction participants. Transactions on the market are not cleared. Auction customers are legal entities, such as exporters, processors and producers of agricultural products operating in the market for more than three years, with a turnover of at least RUB 1 billion over the last year. The customer of the auction determines the main parameters of the auction: delivery terms, basis, starting price, minimum price step, etc. Any legal entities and individual entrepreneurs can participate in auctions. Commodity auctions attracted great interest of market participants: in the 6 months of 2021, more than 150 companies joined the auction, including major Russian exporters and agricultural holdings such as OZK Trading, Demetra Trading, Rusagro, Blago and others. The CPT Novorossiysk basis (with delivery to the port of Novorossiysk) has become the most popular base among participants as one of the country’s largest grain clusters. In the first five months of 2021, the volume of agricultural products traded on the commodity auction market totalled RUB 11.4 billion, or 656,700 tonnes.

In 2021, trading in sugar continued in the form of a bilateral anonymous auction, where NSD clears and settles sale and purchase agreements concluded on the Exchange. By the end of 2021, trading volume on the sugar market was RUB 2.57 billion (2020: RUB 1.98 billion).

NAMEX is Russia’s authorised exchange for state commodity and procurement interventions on the grain market. In 2021, 32,800 tonnes of grain worth RUB 394.5 million were sold from the state intervention fund (2020: 1.78 million tonnes worth RUB 21.43 billion).

Since April 2021, NAMEX has begun calculating commodity indices for wheat, barley and corn based on the prices of over-the-counter contracts registered by market participants on the exchange. Commodity indices reflect the price of wheat, barley and corn on the FOB Novorossiysk basis and are used by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Customs Service to set export duties on these commodities.