The opening of trading in government bonds on the Moscow Exchange became an unpleasant event for owners of these securities at Univer Capital broker. On March 21, the National Clearing Center (NCC) of the Moscow Exchange forcibly sold federal loan bonds to all 82 clients of the broker, and at a less favorable price. The broker appealed to the Bank of Russia. Chairman of the company's Board of Directors Maxim Kozhevnikov wrote a letter to Central Bank Chairman Elvira Nabiullina, her deputy Philip Gabunia, and Olga Shishlyannikova, Director of the Investment Financial Intermediaries Department. "Vedomosti has read a copy of the letter. Kozhevnikov asks the Bank of Russia to prohibit NCC to forcibly sell clients' assets, compensate for losses due to transactions of 174 million rubles or cancel them.

NCC sold all federal loan bonds of Uni Capital's clients at 11.00 Moscow time (at that time the trades were in the mode of discrete auctions), though only seven of them had margin calls. Bids were put out by NCC independently on yield to maturity of 20% APR. But when at 13.00 Moscow time trading began in the normal mode, the yield on the bonds stabilized at the level of 14-17% - this price was much more favorable than during the discrete auction. As a result, according to the letter, NCC sold client assets at the lowest prices of the day: the amount from the bonds' sale was 1.08 billion rubles, while at the close of trading these securities were already worth 1.26 billion rubles. "This led to irrecoverable losses of the company's clients only by the results of one trading day in the amount of 173.8 million rubles," - writes Kozhevnikov.

The broker had arrears in transactions concluded before February 28, explains the representative of the Moscow Exchange: now the company is in the settlement procedure and cannot make transactions on its own. The NCC has such a right, and it sold bonds in accordance with the clearing rules, as soon as the securities trading was resumed. The sale of the securities was held at the market price an hour after the opening of the auction. The mandate of the NCC is aimed at minimizing systemic risks, so that the problems of one broker would not spread to the whole market. Moreover, reminds the representative of the platform, the regulation allows the broker to open separate settlement codes in the NCC for investors (segregated or separate account); in this case their assets will be accounted separately and cannot be used to secure the obligations of the broker on its own positions or other clients' positions. In case of a broker's insolvency, assets in such accounts can be transferred to another broker, notes a representative of the Moscow Exchange. But Univer Capital did not take advantage of the possibility of segregated accounting of client assets.

Elena Gladysheva, Managing Partner of RI-Consulting on how the situation corresponds to the norm from a legal point of view (whether the NCC really had the right to do so and violate the rule of best execution)? And why did the NCC put such a yield in such a case?

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