The Central Bank will protect the market – Kommersant FM

The Central Bank may receive the right to limit transactions with shares and currency. This follows from the amendments prepared by the State Duma. The regulator will be able to impose a ban for up to six months if the interests of market participants are violated or their actions threaten financial stability. Sanctions may affect both specific players and certain transactions that will become inaccessible to all market participants.

Why is this necessary? Managing Partner of BMS Group Alexey Matyukhov believes that, first of all, this will protect the market from sharp fluctuations in exchange rates: “This bill significantly expands regulatory powers and provides additional strong targeted tools that allow us to regulate, in particular, the conversion rate and avoid unwanted fluctuations.

The Russian segment of the foreign exchange market has narrowed in volume, and the ruble exchange rate can be strongly influenced by individual large transactions, for example, in terms of mergers and acquisitions, which we have observed repeatedly over the past year.

Large exporters and importers, selling foreign exchange earnings and buying foreign currency, already have a strong influence on exchange rates. The new tools will allow us to immediately regulate or even prevent unwanted fluctuations.”

Now there is practically no need for such mechanisms; they are being prepared for the future if new sanctions are introduced against Russia, says economist Sergei Khestanov: “The space for options is quite wide. Perhaps these will be individual actions of investor groups that for some reason the regulator will not like. Violation of price stability is a universal reason that can prompt any restrictive actions.

In principle, there is a practice when the regulator restricts any actions with securities. But still the most common case in the world is the temporary closure of the stock exchange in the event of a stock market panic.

Some restrictions on individual securities are introduced less frequently, but the universal reason for such restrictions is to suppress all kinds of panic. The Central Bank’s decision resembles a desire to create an instrument that may be useful in the future.

There is no current need for such restrictions. But since the dynamics of sanctions are increasing, it is easy to predict that over time there will be more sanctions. Some types of restrictions may appear that are still unknown to us and, accordingly, incomprehensible. And just in case, a toolkit is being created that will allow the regulator, if necessary, to act more flexibly within the framework of the existing legal framework.”

Last week, the Moscow Exchange again spoke about possible sanctions. As analysts suggest, the National Clearing Center may be included in the SDN list, then trading in the dollar and euro may be suspended. However, according to the Moscow Exchange, market participants are ready for such developments.

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Elena Ivanova