Online Distribution Has Become a Strong Trend. Results of the 2nd Dialogue Forum “International Collective Investment Markets: Digital Evolution”
The 2nd Dialogue Forum “International Collective Investment Markets: Digital Evolution” was held in Moscow on March 21 to 22, 2019. This is the second event for CIM participants in Russia and other countries organized by INFINITUM Company Group. The self-regulatory organizations – National Financial Association (SRO NFA) and National Association of Securities Market Participants (NAUFOR) have become co-organizers of the forum this year.
Kirill Pronin, Director of the Department of Collective Investment and Fiduciary Management of the Bank of Russia, spoke at the plenary meeting on the planned changes in Law 156-FZ “On Investment Funds” and other upcoming novations. The regulator representative pointed out a strong trend both in the Russian and global markets in terms of the development of online distribution – despite the fact that there are restrictions that impede the development of online sales of investment units, for example, remote identification issues that have yet to be resolved with the Ministry of Communications. The critical factors driving the level of digitalization of the financial industry, according to Mr. Pronin, are the missions to ensure the information protection, going concern, and to counter unfair practices.
The panel discussion “Prospects for the Development and Mutual Influence of Capital and Collective Investment Markets” moderated by Vasily Zablotsky, SRO NFA President, covered the topics of new capital market products and their importance for collective investment institutions, as well as the role of self-regulating organizations in the development of a transparent and investment-attractive capital market in Russia.
“The new instruments of the bond market will help diversify the investments by the collective investment market participants, as well as ensure the attractiveness of the Russian market and the instruments available on it for foreign investors. SRO NFA has been consistently developing and contributing to the internationalization of the Russian financial market,” said Vasily Zablotsky, President of SRO NFA.
The lunch break was followed by a panel discussion “Digital Evolution and Market Transformation: The Future of Investment Funds”. Its participants focused mainly on market regulation issues.
“We are discussing with the regulator the changes in laws necessary to expand the possibilities for online transactions for clients of the companies in the collective investment market. Despite the fact that, for objective reasons, this work may not always be fast, all in all the vector of development towards digital transformation is the most promising one,” said Ekaterina Gantseva, Vide-President of NAUFOR.
“Traditional roles in the financial markets will be changing,” said Pavel Prass, CEO of INFINITUM Asset Services. – “The duplication of secondary processes puts pressure on the market, and this means that we will drift faster towards the Fund Administrator model. These infrastructure organizations should focus on routine transactions, while management companies will orderly make high-quality investment products.”
The final panel section moderated by Sergey Negodyaev, Director for Portfolio Company Relations of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF), was dedicated to the development of financial technologies and digital distribution in collective investment markets. Among other things, the discussion participants, including Elena Chaykovskaya, Advisor to the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia, discussed market expectations from the development of the Marketplace project.
The Dialogue Forum brought together about 100 representatives of infrastructure institutions, government agencies, public and academic organizations, participants of the financial markets of Armenia, Belarus, Turkey, and Russia. Forum partners were Leader CJSC, Bloomberg L.P., Avancore LLC and Orticon Corporate Systems LLC.
The second day of the forum was held in the format of tours to the sites of the Skolkovo Technopark, Microsoft Technology Center near the Belorusskaya station and in the Microsoft office in Krylatskoye district.