Page 87 - RusRPTSept19

8.5.1 Fixed income - bond news
Russia's Finance Ministry restarts the placements of OFZ-n bonds available to retail investors, or the so-called "people's bonds," with a September 2 placement of RUB15bn of federal bonds maturing in 2022 and yielding 7.53% annually. Notably, the ministry will try to boost the appeal of the retail instrument by removing the commission fee on purchasing the bonds and ahead-of-the-term selling, as well as lowering the minimal entry purchase amount per one buyer, and allowing using OFZ-ns as collateral. As reported by bne IntelliNews, as the interest rates declined, OFZ-n people's bonds became less popular, as re-selling state and private banks replace those by selling their own bonds and corporate bonds to their retail clients. Analysts surveyed by Kommersant daily on new OFZ-n selling rules welcomes the changes, but believe that low interest rates of the instrument remain unappealing even as compared to deposit rates or corporate bonds from top issuers.
87 RUSSIA Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com