Russia's National Settlement Depository (NSD) and China Central Depository and Clearing Co (CCDC), China’s CSD for servicing governmental securities, have signed a memorandum of understanding. 

The CSDs have agreed to share information and experience as well as develop cooperation around depository and settlement operations, operational interactions using linking corresponding accounts, corporate actions processing and information services. 

Eddie Astanin, chairman of the executive board at the NSD said that the MoU was an important step which would benefit both companies:

“Russia’s post-trading infrastructure integration with the global market and with the Chinese market in particular meets our clients’ interests and expectations," said Astanin. 

"China’s huge investment potential in the Russian market and Russian issuers’ and market participants’ interest in financial instruments and assets of the Chinese market create a demand for the CSD services in both countries."

Based in Beijing, CCDC was founded in 1996 to provide depository services to government securities holders. Currently, in addition to government bonds safekeeping and record keeping, CCDC services OTC corporate bonds.

NSD and CCDC intend to cooperate in the bilateral format and within the framework of associations: Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories (AECSD), Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and WFC.

A number of meetings and seminars, organised by major Russian financial institutions, took place in Hong Kong and Singapore in 2014.