The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) has granted Recognized Non-AIFC Member (RNAM) status to Raiffeisenbank, a Russian subsidiary of Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International, as reported by the Astana International Exchange (AIX) press office.
«Raiffeisenbank has been granted RNAM status by the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA). This means that the regulator recognizes the active broker license of Raiffeisenbank. This status is a milestone on becoming an AIX trade member, but the bank still has to go through an onboarding process,» the statement read.
This means that AIX has acknowledged Raiffeisenbank’s broker license, paving the way for the organization to become a full-fledged member of the exchange.
Currently, Raiffeisenbank serves as a securities custodian for the AIX Central Securities Depository (CSD). This status allows the bank to store clients’ securities in the depository but does not permit it to conduct transactions on their behalf.
As of today, there are eight Russian companies that are trade members of AIX: Fontvielle LLC, ITInvest JSC, IVA Partners LLC, KIT Finance JSC, Piter Trust JSC, Renaissance Broker Ltd, Aton LLC and Cifra Broker LLC.
In August, the CSD announced that it was going to open accounts in Russian Raiffeisenbank, UniCredit Bank and Citibank to transfer stock accounting of Russian issuers, which it holds as a nominee.
The CSD acknowledged that not all banks would agree to open fiduciary accounts, so the agency allowed the option of opening accounts in one or more selected banks.