Moscow Exchange Forum 2020 held online
The Moscow Exchange Forum was convened on 2-3 November 2020, with the entire event held online for the first time.
More than 5,000 international and Russian investors logged on to view the broadcast of the Forum.
The Forum’s major topics included financial market regulation, the post-pandemic outlook for the Russian economy, key issues in attracting international investment to the Russian market, the development of ecosystems and the future of the precious metals market.
Moscow Exchange CEO Yury Denisov highlighted the rising impact of retail investors on the Russian equity market. He noted that more than 7 million Russian residents now hold brokerage accounts, they generate more than 40% of the trading volume in equities and accounted for more than 15% of demand at the last big IPO on the Russian market.
One of the key areas for discussion at the Forum was digitalization of the Russian financial market. First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia Sergey Shvetsov said that digitalization facilitated remote interaction of market participants and would allow more sophisticated data processing. Mr. Shvetsov noted that the Finuslugi marketplace rolled out by Moscow Exchange was one such example of digitalization, aiming primarily to improve the availability of financial services to individuals from across the country.
Deputy Ministry of Finance Alexey Moiseev spoke about plans of his ministry to call all state-owned companies to pay dividends at 50% of net profit under IFRS. Furthermore, he announced plans to amend the management assessment principles for state companies.
Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia Alexey Zabotkin provided an overview of the Russian economy in 2020 and spoke about how the economic situation has unfolded differently than in past periods of crisis. Mr Zabotkin believes that the 2020 economic outcome will be better than forecasts made in March and April 2020 thanks to counter-cyclical efforts undertaken by the government in the financial and monetary arenas.
Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov noted the rising interest of individuals in the stock market and forecasted a twofold increase of the number of retail investors over the next three years amid decreasing interest rates. He said that the growth would be driven by new legislation on 2nd and 3rd types of Individual Investment Accounts (IIAs) as well as guaranteed pension plan.
During a panel discussion on the macroeconomic situation globally and in Russia, Chairman of the Moscow Exchange Supervisory Board Oleg Viyugin discussed the near-term outlook and options of how governments may respond amid the current crisis. He said that the key task at present is to analyze the existing situation to find a solution, perhaps through efforts of governments, which would be particular crucial for developing countries.
Forum participants also included Deputy Minister of Energy Pavel Sorokin, Deputy Director of the Research Department at the IMF Antonio Spilimbergo, President and CEO of MTS Alexey Kornya, CEO of Polyus Pavel Grachev, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board at Sberbank Alexander Vedyakhin, CEO of QIWI Boris Kim, CEO of Delivery Club Guvenc Donmez, well-known entrepreneur Oskar Hartmann, experts of the World Bank and World Gold Council, as well as representatives of international investment funds, brokerages, banks and Russian companies.
This year’s forum was held in partnership with Sber CIB, which arranged one-on-one online meetings between Russian corporations and international investment funds. Representatives of 62 issuers participated in meetings with 93 investment funds.
MOEX seeks to promote the Russian financial market and its investment potential worldwide, and holds annual forums in key global financial centers. The events are intended to provide the global investment community with insights into the Russian economy as well as investment opportunities and major trends in Russia’s financial markets.
Video recordings of all Forum sessions are available on the Moscow Exchange Forum 2020 website.