Brokers bowed their heads – Kommersant FM

Brokers asked the Central Bank not to introduce a new category of investors. To the so-called quals and non-quals, the regulator wants to add KNURs – clients with an initial level of risk – with less than a year of margin trading experience. They may be limited to a maximum leverage of 30-40%. And brokers, as conceived by the Central Bank, will warn them about transactions that lead to an uncovered position.

The National Association of Stock Market Participants suggested that the regulator abandon this idea, Vedomosti writes. The tightening of the rules will hit the market, which already lacks liquidity. The existing restrictions are quite enough, Oleg Chikhladze, director of the BCS brokerage business, is sure:

“The current mechanism, when clients can be tested, is optimal and sufficient. New restrictions are being introduced, which are nowhere else in the world, and we believe that this creates an extra burden – firstly, purely operational, and secondly, we do not understand why this is being done, what tasks are being solved, what is the long-term strategy is behind it.

All these restrictions appear under the pretext of care and protection, but if we look at what they lead to, we will see that often behind this there is a desire to absolve ourselves of responsibility and simply close some opportunities for private investors.

A simple example: the pension reform, under which pension funds were denied the opportunity to invest in risky assets. Their final profitability was even less than on deposits. As a result, the purchasing power of these assets did not rise, but fell, and the long-term risk, the risk of inflation, destroyed the financial future of those who took part in this system.

Brokers point to the importance of retail investors. They account for 76% of trading in stocks and a third in bonds. But allowing them to take risks is unacceptable, the head of the investment company Ivolga Capital, Andrey Khokhrin, is sure: “I think all leverage is a big problem, especially for a novice investor.

First of all, the statistics of active operations in the market are very bad in terms of results – less than 1% of clients earn with them.

It is clear why the broker needs this: he gets additional marginality, there are no problems with sales, since people come to the market. That is, as if tactically, brokers want to win.

What will be strategic? This is a question of tomorrow, but life has taught us not to look especially into tomorrow. The Central Bank has a different logic: it understands that the huge number of individuals that enter the market is a deferred problem. Many of them will end up with a negative financial result, and we need to blur this somehow, make it smaller.”

The representative of the Central Bank told Vedomosti that the reduced leverage would be enough for novice investors to “feel the market.” Brokers also note that since last year, clients themselves have become less likely to take risks and take a smaller amount of leverage. At the same time, the regulator is ready to simplify the process of obtaining the status of a qualified investor. To do this, it will be enough to pass the exam, even if the candidate has neither specialized education, nor experience, nor a certain amount in the accounts.

---

Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Ъ FM”.

Ivan Koryakin