Digital Transformation of Financial Markets as a Global Eurasian Trend
On September 27-29, 2018, the 15th International Conference of the Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories, Access to Foreign Markets: Challenges and Opportunities, was held in Tashkent (Republic of Uzbekistan). Among those who participated in the conference was Pavel Prass, Managing Director of the INFINITUM Asset Services, and Boris Cherkassky, Advisor to the Managing Director of the INFINITUM Asset Services.
In his speech Pavel Prass told his colleagues about the transformation of financial markets in digital era. He talked about the wide-spread use of online services of financial organizations in everyday lives of Russian consumers and Russia’s economy as a whole, as well as about the proactive stance of the Bank of Russia towards development of technological infrastructure. One of such projects now being implemented with the support of the Russian mega regulator is the Marketplace, in which INFINITUM is taking part. The company provides the technological platform used for online operations with shares of investment funds.
Boris Cherkassky, Advisor to the Director General of the INFINITUM Asset Services, also spoke at the conference. He suggested creating the Asian Settlement Depository (ASD) and put forward this idea for consideration by the conference participants. The main purpose of the ASD is to unify securities markets of Asian nations. The organization should simplify settlements for trans-border operations with securities and provide depositary storage on the basis of national CSDs, as well we cut related costs. The ASD is not intended to become a substitute for national CSDs and does not limit their business and development. Its main functions consist in trans-border settlements based on FOP technologies and multi-currency DVP on the basis of bilateral ties (correspondent accounts) between the ASD and national CSDs with the participation of international ICSDs.
Among the participants in the conference were representatives of central depositaries from China, Iran, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Russia, Korea, as well as delegates from major international infrastructural organizations, such as Euroclear, Clearstream, ANNA, SWIFT and others. The INFINITUM Asset Services has been an associate member of the Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories since 2015.