EDB hosts a roundtable on the establishment of an integrated foreign exchange market in the EES
Almaty, 26 June 2014. Today, Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) hosted the roundtable Integrated Foreign Exchange Market for CIS Resident Banks: Prospects and Opportunities. The event brought together representatives of the leading Kazakh banks, Moscow Exchange, and EDB researchers.
The participants pointed out, in particular, that the establishment of an integrated foreign exchange market envisions mutual access for its players to the markets of the Eurasian Economic Space (EES) and other interested CIS countries (EES+), and the creation of conditions to provide direct quotes and make mutual settlements between foreign traders in national currencies.
Experts believe that if EES+ participants get access to an integrate exchange market, this will contribute to liquidity growth, and the availability of direct quotes will reduce foreign traders’ translation costs.
“The search for arguments for the integration of financial markets is in the past. An integrated financial market of the EES countries will make it possible to raise financial resources to support businesses and ensure a balanced position in competition with developed global and regional financial centres,” Ella Baibikova, Head of the EDB Research Department, emphasised.
The roundtable was organised on occasion of the launching of an integration project in the foreign exchange market: Moscow Exchange has opened access to its foreign exchange auctions for Eurasian banks. An important issue is that they won’t need to get a Russian foreign exchange licence and a licence from the national regulator will suffice.
The project was presented at the roundtable. Moscow Exchange representatives also awarded a Moscow Exchange foreign exchange trader certificate to AsiaCredit Bank, Kazakhstan’s first participant in the project.
Additional Information
Moscow Exchange is the largest exchange holding in Russia and Eastern Europe, which was set up in December 2011 after the merger of MICEX (founded in 1992) and RTS (founded in 1995). Moscow Exchange ranks among the world’s top twenty exchanges in terms of securities trade and the capitalisation of stocks traded, and among the top ten exchanges for derivatives.
Eurasian Development Bank is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth and the expansion of mutual trade and other economic ties in its member states. EDB’s charter capital exceeds US $1.5 billion. The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan. Read more at https://www.eabr.org.