MOSCOW — Today, the new licensing procedure for types of professional activities on the stock market is taking effect based on the respective order of the Federal Service for Financial Markets of Russia. This document is to substitute the regulation on licensing of professional participants of the stock market ratified by the Federal Commission for the Securities Market of Russia in 2000.

The new document sets forth licensing requirements and conditions for performing professional activities on the Russian stock market, and lays down the procedure for issuing, rejecting and canceling licenses. Compared with the previous document, the new one contains tougher requirements for legal entities, and top managers of companies, seeking to become professional participants. The new licensing procedure imposes a requirement to present a business plan for the coming year on applicants for licenses. Besides this, it contains a single procedure for review of documents from all applicants, irrespective of whether they supply a solicitation from the self-regulatory organization they belong to or not.