September 5, 2007

MOSCOW, 5 September 2007. — Chairman of the RF Government Mikhail Fradkov has visited the MICEX to survey the Exchange’s electronic trading and settlement complex. After seeing the Exchange, Mr. Fradkov said he was quite satisfied by the work of the MICEX, which is the main part of the exchange infrastructure of the Russian capital market. “This is my first visit to the MICEX and I am quite satisfied by how the work is organized,” said Mr. Fradkov. “The MICEX is a reliable and transparent floor, its possibilities are unlimited. This is our message for individual investors. There are no restrictions, and investors can participate in trading whenever they wish. There are appropriate technological possibilities and there is a network that provides security and guarantees.”

During the visit, Chairman of the RF Government and Head of the Federal Service for Financial Markets Vladimir Milovidov saw the MICEX’s exchange technologies, including the organization of trading and settlements on the stock market. The MICEX President Alexander Potemkin, CEO of the MICEX Stock Exchange Alexei Rybnikov and Director of the National Depository Center Nokolai Yegorov showed the delegation the exchange infrastructure, the trading hall, the technological center and the museum of the exchange business history.

Demonstrating the exchange infrastructure, the MICEX President Alexander Potemkin said: “We value the attention of the Government to the exchange business. This year the MICEX has marked its 15th anniversary. During all these years the Exchange tried to make its contribution to the creation of market mechanisms of determining the exchange rate of the Russian ruble and attracting investments to the country economy. As a result, the Exchange has built the infrastructure of the national capital market using the most advanced information technologies, while the MICEX itself has turned into a vertically integrated holding, the MICEX Group. At present, by the daily average volume of exchange-based transactions, amounting to over 50 billion rubles (about 20 billion dollars), the MICEX is the largest exchange in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe. The MICEX Stock Exchange is among the world’s top 20 stock exchanges. In 2007 the MICEX joined the World Federation of Exchanges as its affiliated member.”

According to á. Potemkin, the trading and depository complex of the Exchange was used as the technological basis for the national system of trading in all main segments of the financial market: the currency market (since 1992), the government securities market (since 1993), the derivatives market (since 1996), the share market (since 1997), the market for corporate and regional bonds (since 1999) and the money market (since 2004). The MICEX Group is comprised of the MICEX, the MICEX Stock Exchange, the MICEX Settlement House, the National Depository Center, the National Clearing Center, the National Mercantile Exchange, regional exchange and some other organizations. All these organizations provide trading, settlement, clearing and depository services to over 1700 professional participants in the exchange-based market: leading Russian banks and broker companies.

Showing the Exchange’s technological center to the head of the Russian Government, á. Potemkin noted that the MICEX Group has an electronic trading and depository system which satisfies the world’s best standards of reliability, efficiency, protection and continuity of business. The telecommunication network of the complex is supported by leading providers of network services and covers the whole territory of Russia. The core of the global trading network of the MICEX is two computing centers: the main one and the reserve one. Each day the MICEX trading complex registers about 200 000 transactions, up to 70 transactions a second. Via different communication channels the Exchange is connected to over 1500 remote work places in banks, broker companies and other financial institutes in more than 100 Russian cities. “The technological capacities of the MICEX’s network exceed the Exchange’s needs almost twofold even at peak moments,” said á. Potemkin. “Today we cannot afford lagging behind other countries in the field of technologies, we must be competitive.”

After visiting the MICEX, the Prime Minister held a meeting devoted to the development of the infrastructure of the Russian financial market and the goals of the RF FSFM in the context of globalization. The meeting was attended by the head of the RF FSFM V. Milovidov, his deputies V. Gusakov, S. Kharlamov, B. Khulhachiev, heads of territorial offices of the RF FSFM, heads of Russian exchanges, self-regulatory organizations and representatives of the largest professional participants in the Russian financial market.