The Central Bank of Russia believes that it is necessary to fine-tune the system of qualification of investors, strengthening the criterion of experience and knowledge, as well as increase the bar on the property criterion. This opinion was expressed on May 16 by the head of the regulator, Elvira Nabiullina, during her speech at the Russian Stock Market 2023 conference.
“In our opinion, the existing mechanism for recognizing qualified investors is not effective enough. Indeed, it puts more emphasis on the issue of the availability of assets,” quotes Nabiullin Agency “Prime”.
The head of the Central Bank drew attention to international experience. In other countries, in addition to the property criteria of the investor, the criteria related to his experience are important for regulators.
In the summer of 2022, the Bank of Russia presented a concept for improving the protection of retail investors. The regulator proposed to increase asset threshold from 6 million rubles. up to 30 million rubles to recognize the investor as qualified. While the concept is at the stage of discussion with market participants.
A qualified investor is an individual or legal entity recognized as capable of carrying out certain transactions in the securities market. The corresponding concept was introduced in No. 39-FZ “On the securities market” in Russia. Qualified investors have access to more transactions than unqualified investors, including the opportunity to invest in riskier assets.
