August 18, 2006

The Bank of Russia has granted the National Clearing Center (joint-stock commercial bank) banking license #3466 of 16 August 2006 to carry out banking operations in Russian rubles and foreign currency. This enables the NCC to prepare the launch of clearing services in the exchange-based market.

The founders of the National Clearing Center are the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (98% of the authorized capital) and not-for-profit partnership The National Depository Center (2%). The NCC’s authorized capital is 235 million rubles. In future, it will be raised to 700 million rubles.

The NCC will specialize in providing clearing services in exchange-based and OTC markets, including determining obligations of participants in clearing, offsetting these obligations and organizing the execution of obligations for transactions in compliance with the RF legislation.

The new organization is expected to promote the formation of an appropriate system of risk management, considering refusal from 100% deposition of participants’ funds and the introduction of the Central Counterparty mechanism. The NCC is also expected to promote interaction between participants in the Russian market and international financial institutions and foreign investors. The NCC will perform these tasks using the MICEX’s unified technological platform, which is to be upgraded in future.

The NCC is to become Russia’s first specialized clearing credit institution to provide centralized clearing in the orderly capital market. The MICEX Executive Board plans to launch clearing for the foreign exchange market in 2006. In future, the NCC intends to provide clearing to participants in the government and corporate securities markets and organize clearing for transactions in financial derivatives and OTC transactions.