The Central Bank does not see any violations in the “Digital Broker” newsletter regarding transactions on the St. Petersburg Exchange

The Central Bank (CB) does not see “obvious violations” on the part of the investment company Digital Broker, which announced the cessation of trading operations with Russian securities on the St. Petersburg Exchange as of January 30. This was announced by the director of the department of investment financial intermediaries of the Central Bank Olga Shishlyannikova.

“From the broker’s point of view, there were no formal violations of regulation; I absolutely agree that the text that was sent to clients could have been read in different ways. And, unfortunately, this was realized in practice: they read it differently,” explained Ms. Shishlyannikova on the sidelines of the conference “Financial Market. New guidelines in a changing world” (quote from RIA Novosti).

She added that the Central Bank will analyze the reasons for the fall in prices for shares of the St. Petersburg Exchange, and if the regulator identifies any unfair practices, then an example of the measure. “Any price surge is subject to analysis by the Bank of Russia in order to understand the reasons for this surge and understand whether it was caused by any specific events, some dishonest actions, or something else,” Olga Shishlyannikova clarified.

In November 2023, St. Petersburg Exchange came under US sanctions. Following this, the trading platform suspended trading in foreign securities. January 29 “Digital Broker” reportedthat the next day all trading operations with Russian securities on the St. Petersburg Exchange will be unavailable to the company’s clients. Against the backdrop of this news, shares of St. Petersburg Exchange fell by almost 14%. The St. Petersburg Exchange itself stated that the platform does not intend to stop trading in Russian securities.

About the plans of the St. Petersburg Exchange to unlock assets – in the material “Kommersant” “Shares are being shifted away from sanctions”

Laura Keffer