Investors estimated losses from the suspension of trading in 2022 at 140 million rubles

A representative of a group of private investors at a meeting on a claim against the Central Bank reported that the losses of private investors from the suspension of trading on the Moscow Exchange on February 24, 2022 amounted to more than 140 million rubles. On the day of the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the Russian stock market experienced a record drop in history.

The announced amount is not final, he said RBC, whose correspondent was at the meeting of the Moscow Arbitration Court. At present, the losses of only six applicants who joined the lawsuit have been calculated.

“We believe that the circumstances under which the Central Bank issued an order to stop trading did not fall under the cases described in the regulation “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.” The Central Bank issued these orders not in accordance with its competence, not in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation,” said a representative of the group of plaintiffs.

He explained that due to the trading halt, investors were unable to close margin positions – this subsequently led to debts to brokers. According to the representative, if trading had not been suspended, investors could have had time to close positions before the market fell deeper.

A representative of the Central Bank said that continuing trading on February 24, 2024, on the contrary, would cause a greater loss to investors. The decision to suspend, as he clarified, was made to develop a further algorithm of actions in order to “confront challenges and risks.”

Claim from a group of 16 private investors against the Bank of Russia entered to the Moscow Arbitration Court in October 2023. The plaintiffs called for the Central Bank’s instructions to stop trading at 07:52 Moscow time on February 24, 2022 and to resume trading at 09:50 Moscow time to be declared invalid. In their opinion, the Bank of Russia showed “inaction”, which should be officially recognized as illegal. The next hearing is scheduled for January 26.

Read more in the Kommersant FM article. “Investors are suing due to inaction”.

Petr Buzlaev