Bank of Russia Eases Qualified Investor Rules With New Finance Test

Bank of Russia Eases Requirements To Acquire Qualified Investor Status

The Bank of Russia has eased the requirements needed to reach “qualified investor” status for expanded trading activities in the country.

The institution announced that individuals can now become qualified investors by passing a test on financial and banking knowledge and obtaining a Qualifin Certificate from the National Finance Association (NFA) or a Moscow Exchange (MOEX) Investor Certificate, among other documents.

“Holding any of these certificates is sufficient for a broker or a management company to recognise the individual as a qualified investor,” the bank declared.

This changes the previous regime and democratizes access to qualified investor status, as the bank previously considered only international certifications in areas such as financial analysis, investment consulting, or asset and risk management.

Mikhail Mamuta, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia, stressed that this test would make reaching qualified investor status “more accessible and deliberate,” but denied that increasing these numbers was the prime goal of this new test.

“Our objective is to encourage people to gain knowledge rather than to simply increase the number of qualified investors on paper. The actual level of their knowledge is much more important than this number,” Mamuta said.

“We want people to understand the risks and learn how to manage complex instruments before they enter the market,” he concluded.

This new streamlined opportunity to attain qualified investor status, which will take effect on August 31, comes after recently passed crypto regulations established controversial limits for non-qualified investors, who face a 300,000 ruble ($3,800) cap on crypto purchases per year through a single licensed intermediary. Comparatively, retail qualified investors enjoy limits ten times higher.

Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina justified these restrictions in July, stressing that they were put in place to protect untrained investors.

“Non-qualified investors have fewer opportunities because the government, through legislation, tries to protect them to avoid them embracing the risks that they don’t understand,” she assessed at the time.