Beginner investors in Russia will soon have fewer opportunities to overcome the falling interest rates offered on Russian savings accounts. Apart from the investors themselves, big losers will probably be trading applications such as Robinhood.
On the day of the announcement on December 30, the Central Bank of Russia is working to ensure that trading platforms for securities are in line with the line for "risk mitigation" measures, which was adopted in July. In a recent announcement, the CBR recommends that trading platforms and applications for securities trading should have systems that "protect against the inability to conduct transactions on the platform that would result in the acquisition of shares or other securities from foreign issuers by unqualified investors," except for those approved by the CBR.
The CBR also acts to stop companies from offering "complex investment products". - a term that largely coincides with leveraged or derivative trading - unskilled investors, unless the companies offering these investments provide guaranteed returns of at least two thirds of the central bank key rate. At the current key rate of 4.25%, platforms would have to guarantee returns of 2.83%.
There are serious doubts whether the real intention is to protect investors. While 4.5% would be enviable for a US savings account, the volatility of the rouble since the sanctions were imposed in 2014 and, more recently, the market crash in March 2020 has driven a huge number of investors to the stock exchange for the first time.
