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The system will work in Russia, the CIS and China. Russia has already set up its own version of the credit card payment system called MIR eight years ago. When VISA pulled out of Russia, banks moved smoothly to the Russian credit card payments system without interruption.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) had also set up Financial Communications System (SPFS), a Russian analogue of the SWIFT system, several years before the war started after fears of being cut off from the global financial system surfaced after the annexation of the Crimea in 2014.
In the first days following the war SWIFT sanctions were imposed effectively making it impossible for
Russia to easily make international transfers. The transition to using SPFS was more difficult as the volume of messages it could send, that allow bank transfers, was limited and it was not working 24/7. However, after a year of work the system is reportedly working well now.
Russia has been trying to get other countries to adopt its payment system, but there has been some reluctance after the US threatened to apply secondary sanctions to countries that adopt them. Many banks in Turkey and Central Asia that adopted the MIR car payment system later reversed their decisions after coming under pressure from the US.
The two largest self-regulatory organisations (SROs) of the financial market - the National Financial Association (NFA) and the National Association of Stock Market Participants (NAUFOR) – will be merged. They offer participants the process of combining self-regulation functions in one of the associations. The leadership of the NFA notified members of the inclusion of the issue of waiving the status of SROs in the agenda of the extraordinary general meeting of members of organisations on March 15. In case of a positive decision of the NFA participants, the functions of the SRO will be concentrated in NAUFOR, follows from the letter. Self-regulation of the financial market affects only 14 types of activities. Among them are asset management activities, brokerage, depository, dealer, NPF, etc. SRO represents the interests of professional participants, establishes rules for operating in the financial market and sometimes punishes for their non-compliance, both internal rules and standards of other regulatory bodies, such as the Central Bank. The NFA has 209 accredited members. A significant part of the players is also a member of another association - NAUFOR, which is the largest in the market. In total, this SRO has 445 members, of which 263 are companies managing mutual funds.
Russian broker FG Finam will allow Russian investors to enter the private and public markets of India, Vladislav Kochetkov, president of the company, told Vedomosti. The admission will be implemented through the local broker Ashika Group - Finam, together with the venture capital company Finsight Ventures (it was founded by the founder of Finam, Viktor Remsha,
142 RUSSIA Country Report Russia April 2023 www.intellinews.com