November 23, 2005

To raise the attractiveness of the orderly currency market and equalize the conditions of carrying out SAWP deals in euro/ruble and dollar/ruble segments, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) has established, for the period 1 December 2005 — 15 February 2006, a new size of commission for euro/ruble SAWP deals carried out in the Unified Trading Session of inter-bank currency exchanges (UTS), and a new procedure for its collection. The new rules stipulate a unified commission rate equal to 0.001% of the amount of each euro/ruble SAWP deal.

Before, the size of the commission, paid by traders for euro/ruble SAWP deals (from 0.004% to 0.002%), depended on the total daily volume of operations in the euro carried out in the UTS. The MICEX has decided to reduce the commission 2 to 4 times and is going to consider making the new size of the commission and the procedure for its collection permanent.

The MICEX has decided to cut the commission in order to equalize the conditions of carrying out SAWP deals in euro/ruble and dollar/ruble segments. Before, the MICEX Board established, for the period 1 September 2005 — 15 February 2006 inclusive, a unified commission rate for SAWP deals in trading in the US dollar in the UTS. This resulted in a considerable growth of the volume of SAWP deals. In September-October 2005, the average daily volume of dollar/ruble SAWPs amounted to 1075 million US dollars, 2.2 times more than in June-August. At the same time, the existing rate of commission for euro/ruble SAWP deals considerably exceeded the rate of commission for dollar/ruble SAWPs.

According to the MICEX President Alexander Potemkin, the reduction of the commission for euro/ruble SAWPs is another step in the development of the exchange segment of the euro/ruble market. In June 2005, the MICEX provided attractive conditions in the exchange segment of the euro/ruble market by launching new instruments and adopting a system of risk management similar to that existing in trading in the US dollar. In particular, the MICEX launched a new euro instrument with tomorrow settlements and enabled traders to carry out currency SAWP transactions.

Those measures helped to increase the liquidity of the exchange euro market. In July√October 2005, the daily average volume of trading in the euro exceeded two times the figure for the first six months of 2005. In January√October 2005, the volume of trading in the euro reached 2.56 billion euros, 48% more than in the same period of 2004 (1.73 billion euros).