Bank of Russia, the financial “Megaregulator” that is responsible for the Forex industry in the country too, has had an Instruction regarding the business activities of Forex brokers published in its official newspaper today.
The Instruction includes 11 standards, or standard requirements, which Forex brokers willing to be and stay regulated in Russia should meet.
These standards should be outlined and their implementation overseen by a Forex self-regulatory organization (SRO). Let’s recall that membership in such a SRO is obligatory for Russian Forex brokers – the FX firms that are not members of such an SRO will have to quit the Russian FX market not later than January 1, 2016. Getting a membership in a Forex SRO would have been a much clearer process, if there was at least one Forex SRO in Russia. But officially the Bank of Russia has not granted such a status to any organization.
Posting the list of business standards for implementation is a step in the right direction, of course.
The requirements include ones concerning Forex advertising (Standard #2) – demanding that Forex ads of a given broker include its full corporate name and information about its licenses. Ads should not inflict any damage, including moral damage, to third parties.
The Bank of Russia also pays attention to Standard #9, which requires Forex brokers to return client funds not later than two business days after the company receives a relevant request from a customer.
The Forex SRO (or SROs) will be allowed to add Standards to the list, as long as they do not contradict the ones already outlined by the central bank.
Many questions remain unanswered regarding the Russian Forex regulation, although the majority of the provisions in the country’s newborn Forex law became effective on October 1, 2015. The Bank of Russia said in its announcement today that it keeps working on the regulations.
To view the full document (in Russian) as it was published in Bank of Russia’s official newspaper, click here.
To view the Bank of Russia’s press release on the topic, click here.