Moscow hosts Bank of Russia conference on financial market regulation

The central topic of the workshop is “Legal regulation of the financial market: traditions and innovations”. The discussion is attended by leading lawyers, legal experts, representatives from ministries, agencies, banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other financial market agents, and also foreign central banks and international financial institutions.

In his opening remarks, the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia, Sergey Shvetsov, talked about the unprecedented volumes of legislative work performed since 2013 when the Bank of Russia became a mega-regulator. He highlighted that roughly 160 laws in the sphere of financial market regulation had been passed over the course of the aforementioned period.

Sergey Shvetsov emphasised the importance of adopting laws which make it possible to transition the Russian banking system to regulation based on Basel III principles, conduct a complete overhaul of the rating sector, reform the NPF system and derivatives market, and set up self-regulatory agencies.

Conference attendees will discuss challenges currently faced by central banks, including the potential implementation of the professional judgment principle in financial market supervision. The agenda will also include social aspects of the financial market. There will also be an in-depth discussion of the protection of rights of non-governmental pension funds’ consumers, the specifics of supervision over NPFs and the outlook of non-governmental pension provision. Particular attention will be paid to financial rehabilitation mechanisms for insurance companies, and also the possibilities of constructing a single stock exchange, banking and insurance environment within the Eurasian Economic Union. A special session is devoted to the legal regulation of digital finances.

Sergey Shvetsov emphasised the importance of regulation in the new segments of the financial market, specifically, the fintech sphere. “We must create a legal environment in this sphere and, at the same time, be able to protect the individuals using these instruments”, said the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia. He stated that all legislative innovations proposed by the Bank of Russia are aimed at improving regulation and reducing costs faced by financial market participants.