What is happening on the regional bond market?

The placement of SNs under the Russian law can be incentivized by the introduction of access criteria for non-qualified investors. Federal Law 75-FZ introducing SNs in the Russian securities market entered into force in October 2018. The SNs novelty rests in that under certain circumstances, specified in issue documents, their issuer is allowed to pay the note holders less than the face value of the notes. Those circumstances include a range of triggers, such as changes in the costs of goods and securities, currency exchange rate, interest rates, official statistic data, inflation rate, etc. Circumstances determining the payments to note holders also include the default by corporate, sovereign and municipal entities (reference entities), which laid the groundwork for the issuance of Russian CLNs.

So far, there have been no SN offerings under the new law. Structured products (including those originated in overseas jurisdictions) were available to Russian investors previously. The notion of a ‘structured instrument’ is broader than that of a ’structured note’. Structured products include not only instruments that do not guarantee the face value of a note, but also those that protect the investors’ capital against loss (the so-called investment bonds). The latter entitle their holders to claim from the issuers the repayment of their face amount, a minimal fixed-rate coupon and additional sums (depending, e.g., on prices for some assets. Typical examples of these products are deposits and bonds whose issuer has a sovereign-grade rating, which also contain a derivative component (a put option on some asset).The embedded derivative component allows a higher yield, while the interest income on the note ensures the repayment of the face amount.

On June 30, 2019, there were 168 structured instruments issued by Russian market participants, including capital-protected products, , equivalent to around $2.15 billion, of which 109 issues ($90.366m) were denominated in rubles, 52 ($654.7m) in US dollars, and 7 ($71.6m) in euro.

Investments in the infrastructure of capital markets in the sphere of financial technologies are growing rapidly. For companies, the key aspect is the attitude to financial technologies not as a strategy, but as a means of achieving strategic priorities.

The National Rating Agency (NRA) has published its seventh annual rating of investment attractiveness of Russia’s regions. The rating includes all 85 regions of the Russian Federation.

Blackrock specialists in their annual review of key trends in the financial markets are looking for answers to the questions that 2022 has asked.