The Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange has celebrated the 15th year of its history. On this occasion, the RF President Vladimir Putin has sent the MICEX his greetings. In his letter he wrote: “The history of the MICEX is closely linked with the history of the Russian stock market and the emergence of modern market institutions. Over the recent years, you have occupied strong positions, earned the trust of leading Russian banks and broker companies and implemented up-to-date exchange and information technologies. Today, the MICEX is an important part of Russia’s financial system. It acts as the country’s worthy ambassador in the international arena.”
At the celebration ceremony, the MICEX President Alexander Potemkin said: “Over the last 15 years, the MICEX has made an important contribution to the creation of market mechanisms of determining the exchange rate of the Russian ruble and attracting investments in the country’s economy. As a result, we have built the infrastructure of the national capital market, based on most advanced exchange and information technologies, while the MICEX itself has turned into a vertically-integrated holding (the MICEX Group)”. At present, by the daily average volume of exchange-based transactions (about 235 billion rubles or 9 billion US dollars), the MICEX is the largest exchange in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe. In 2007, the World Federation of Exchanges made the MICEX its affiliated member.
The Group’s history began in the early 1990s, when, in the course of market reforms, a number of Russia’s leading banks and the Bank of Russia established the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), which began to organize trading in foreign currencies. Since the very first days of the existence of the exchange-based currency market, the exchange rate of the US dollar fixed on the MICEX has been one of the main indicators of the success of economic reforms in Russia.
The MICEX Group’s history includes the flowing main stages:
1. 1992–1995: the creation of the MICEX, the formation of the exchange-based currency market and the market for government securities, the development and implementation of an up-to-date electronic trading and depository platform for the Russian orderly financial market. The MICEX becomes the central part of the Russian orderly currency market.
2. 1995-1998: The MICEX and regional exchanges integrate to form a national exchange system, based on a single platform, where trading is held in the real-time mode in all main sectors of the financial market: the foreign exchange market, the stock market and the derivatives market. The MICEX becomes Russia’s main trading floor for foreign exchange and government securities.
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3. 1998-2007: the formation of the MICEX Group holding, which includes organizations providing trading, settlement and clearing services for professional participants in different markets. The MICEX becomes Russia’s leading floor for corporate securities.
At present, in the framework of the Group, the MICEX provides trading and settlement services in the following segments of the financial market: the foreign exchange market (since 1992), the government securities market (since 1993), the market for derivative financial instruments (since 1996), the share market (since 1997), the market for corporate and regional bonds (since 1999), and the money market (since 2004). After implementing an up-to-date electronic trading and depository system, the MICEX became a universal financial exchange, which forms the basis of the nationwide system of trading in all main segments of the financial market.
At present, the MICEX Group is the key element of the exchange infrastructure of the Russian capital market. It integrates the trading and the settlement systems on a single platform. The MICEX Group is comprised of the MICEX, the MICEX Stock Exchange, the MICEX Settlement House, the National Depository Center, the National Clearing Center, the National Mercantile Exchange, regional exchanges and some other organizations. They serve over 1700 participants in the exchange-based market - leading Russian banks and brokerages, located in Moscow and other large financial and industrial centers of Russia.
The MICEX Group ended the 15th year of its history with impressive results. In 2006, the total volume of trading in all markets of the MICEX Group amounted to 52 trillion rubles (over 1.9 trillion US dollars), 2 times more than in 2005. This figure is a historical maximum for the MICEX. The MICEX Stock Exchange organizes daily trading in stocks and bonds of about 600 Russian issuers. Over 580 broker companies and banks trade on the MICEX SE. Their clients are over 300 thousand clients, including 260 thousand individual investors. The volume of transactions in securities on the MICEX Stock Exchange makes up over 90% of the total turnover of the Russian floors on the Russian market. Growth of the volume of exchange-based transactions in corporate securities enabled the MICEX Stock Exchange to join the list of top 20 leading stock exchanges of the world. The MICEX Stock Exchange is the place where liquidity for Russian assets concentrates. It is the main stock exchange for international investments in stocks and bonds of leading Russian companies.
The MICEX President Alexander Potemkin noted that the rapid growth of the Russian economy, observed in recent years, the increasing trust of international investors in Russia and its markets and the improvement of the exchange infrastructure will contribute to the attractiveness of the national stock market. The latter has become a working mechanism, which Russian companies use to attract investments to upgrade their production facilities.
Main events in the MICEX history (1992-2007)
