Key trends in the segment of professional securities market participants in 2015

In 2015, professional securities market participants were highly active. Over the year, trading at the Moscow Exchange increased by 19.7% to 685.4 trillion rubles. The FX market saw the major trading volume, while the futures market grew at the highest pace. This information is communicated in the ‘Review of Key Indicators of Professional Securities Market Participants’ (No. 4, 2015) by the Bank of Russia’s Non-credit Financial Institutions’ Statements Collection and Processing Department.

The activity of professional participants – non-bank financial institutions (professional NFI participants) in the OTC market rose even more considerably: in 2015 Q4 only, OTC transactions turnover grew nine-fold to reach 25.5 trillion rubles, with dealer turnover accounting for 72%. As of the end of 2015, professional NFI participants had 1.3 million customers, most of them households (1.29 million people). Individual investment accounts (IIA) launched in 2015 supplemented instruments to raise funds from households. By early 2016, about 89.6 thousand such accounts were open, the IIA-based trading volume stood at 43.1 billion rubles.

In 2015, assets held by professional NFI participants persisted at 0.9% of GDP or 761.8 billion rubles, of which 10.5 billion rubles are assets held by registrars. Net profit of professional NFI participants shrank in 2015 by 5.8% to 23.1 billion rubles, of which 1.0 billion rubles is registrars’ net profit.

The decline in profit resulted from higher expenses, including administrative expenses. Meanwhile, about half of the companies recorded profit below 20 million rubles, with another quarter suffering losses.

In 2015, the Bank of Russia continued to oust insolvent players from the market and enhance transparency of the financial sector. This resulted in licence revocations from some professional securities market participants. Over the year, their number declined by 18.9% to 875 companies.