On 10 April 2018, Moscow Exchange (MOEX) signed a letter of intent (LoI) on strategic cooperation with Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).The LoI was signed by Alina Aldambergen, CEO of Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, and Alexander Afanasiev, CEO of Moscow Exchange, at the annual Moscow Exchange Forum in Moscow.
The agreement is designed to develop the Eurasian economic space and establish a unified financial market across the Eurasian Economic Union.
Cooperation between the exchanges intends to facilitate mutual access to their respective markets for professional market participants and investors; contribute to building out a central counterparty infrastructure on Kazakhstan’s markets; deliver MOEX’s trading and clearing IT solutions to KASE’s markets; and provide consultations on how to improve on-exchange trading, clearing and risk management processes, as well as create new exchange-traded instruments.
Under the agreement, MOEX may in future acquire an interest in KASE.
Alexander Afanasiev, CEO of Moscow Exchange, said:
"This partnership is an important step towards integration of the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union. It aims to improve attractiveness of our marketplaces and boost liquidity of exchange-traded instruments. Investors in both countries will receive access to new instruments, while issuers will enjoy new sources of capital."
Alina Aldambergen, CEO of Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, said:
"This agreement will allow us to have Moscow Exchange on board as a strategic partner possessing advanced market technologies, as well as to increase the number of investors and achieve deeper integration of our markets within the Eurasian Economic Union."
Moscow Exchange Group manages the sole multifunctional exchange platform in Russia for equities, bonds, derivative instruments, currencies, money market instruments, precious metals and agricultural products. The Group includes Russia's central securities depository (National Settlement Depository), and National Clearing Centre, performing the functions of central counterparty on the markets, which allows Moscow Exchange to offer its clients the full spectrum of trading and post-trading services.
Moscow Exchange ranks among the world's top 25 exchanges by total volume of equities traded, and among the ten largest exchanges for bond and derivative trading. It is also Russia's primary venue for raising funds via the capital markets. Securities of 664 Russian companies were traded on MOEX as of 1 April 2018.
Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) is the leading trading venue in the Asia-Pacific Region. It is a multi-asset marketplace with a product offering including repo instruments, foreign currencies, government and corporate securities, international bonds and derivatives.
KASE is a member of World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), Federation of European and Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) and other international and domestic professional associations.
KASE is ranked the second by volume of securities traded among exchanges in the CIS and the sixth by equity market capitalisation among the FEAS exchanges.
