"We are hurting the interests of the oligarchs"
Insider information from Dmitry Vasiliev
Tomorrow, at a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, draft laws on liability for the use of insider information and on the liability of affiliated persons will be discussed. And the other day, the First Deputy Prime Minister already held a meeting at which the issue of issuing zero-coupon bonds of the Bank of Russia was discussed. Chairman of the FCSM DMITRY VASILIEV told Kommersant special correspondent YULIA PANFILOVA what was discussed at the meeting and what bills were prepared by the Federal Commission for the Securities Market.

— Have you finally achieved your goal, and the Central Bank will have to register the issues of its zero-coupon bonds with the Ministry of Finance?
“This decision was indeed made yesterday at a meeting with the First Deputy Prime Minister. Fundamental disagreements between the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, on the one hand, and with the Federal Commission and the Ministry of Justice, on the other, have been resolved. The essence of our position is that the issue of bonds must fully comply with the law “On the Securities Market”. The Bank of Russia cannot set its own rules for the circulation of bonds, as it originally planned. I stated this at the meeting yesterday. In addition, the registrar of the issue must be the body granted this right by the Federal Securities Commission. In this case, it will be the Ministry of Finance. The issuer itself cannot be the registration authority.
— What, from your point of view, should the production volume of “beavers” be?
- We believe that it should be as limited as possible - no more than 5 billion rubles. The fact is that these are inflationary securities, the income on them will be paid by printing money - the Bank of Russia has no other sources other than the printing press.
— Do you believe that it will be possible to raise funds using the new securities?
— These papers are needed, as the Central Bank explains, in order to help develop the interbank credit market. In addition, they will help mitigate the exchange rate problem for a while. This means that part of the funds from the foreign exchange market can be diverted to purchase new bonds. But the problem itself will not disappear; it will return in six months, since the income received from the redemption of these bonds will still spill out onto the foreign exchange market. It is impossible to attract any real money into the economy by issuing new securities; on the contrary, it is diverted and goes to the Central Bank. This is not what needs to be done in a good way, we need to protect the rights of banks as creditors, and the problem of so-called excess money will not exist.
— Nevertheless, how soon can we expect the resumption of production of “beavers”?
— Tomorrow there will be another meeting with the First Deputy Prime Minister, until all the details have been agreed upon. By the way, tomorrow the state program for protecting the rights of depositors will be discussed. Including two laws - on liability for the use of insider information, as well as on the liability of affiliates for transactions. Their agreement is very difficult, obviously, because both laws affect the interests of the so-called oligarchs. The problem of affiliates is a problem of withdrawing money and violating the rights of shareholders. We need to put an end to this, or at least localize the process as much as possible.
— You had serious complaints against one of the oligarchic structures - NK YUKOS. You claimed that the company violates the rights of small shareholders. YUKOS, in turn, claimed that you were lobbying the interests of stock speculators. We have not heard anything about the development of the conflict for a long time. Is it settled?
— The investigation continues, when the results are available, we will inform you. I can’t say anything else yet.
— When the conflict with YUKOS broke out, you were reproached for being particularly sympathetic to foreign investors. Now another scandal is brewing that affects the interests of foreign shareholders - MGI has filed a lawsuit regarding the deprivatization of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory (LFZ). Will you still defend the rights of foreigners?
— It doesn’t matter at all whether we are talking about the rights of which investors—Russian or foreign. I think the trend itself is dangerous. It could seriously undermine the securities market. Imagine, six or seven years have passed, everything has been resold ten times, nationalizing the plant now is absurd. All this could undermine the privatization process itself, that is, the work of MHI, which began the process with the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory. Why buy something that could be taken away tomorrow? We raised this issue very harshly - we contacted both the MHI and the government. We are waiting for a reaction.
— One of the shareholders of LFZ, the Russia-USA investment fund, which is financed by the American government, has already turned to Congress and Vice President Al Gore for help. Does the situation really threaten an international scandal?
- I don’t rule it out. They are very tough.
— Do you reject the very possibility of revising the results of privatization, including loans-for-shares auctions? Even if they were carried out in violation of the law and the state lost a lot of money?
— I never make a possible decision absolute. But it must be taken taking into account all the circumstances. It is one thing if the company's shares were sold to one or more persons and are still in their possession. What if there have already been twenty transactions? What does the current owner of securities care about how they were sold many years ago? Moreover, the State Property Committee approved the deal at one time. I'm not even talking about compensation payments from the budget, where there is no money to pay the owners.
— The rights of investors mean the reliability of financial institutions. However, you agreed to less stringent regulation of mutual funds...
— You are making a serious mistake: the Federal Commission has never allowed and will never allow management companies to work with risky financial instruments.
— Then why, unlike previous documents, are there no derivative instruments in the list of securities with which management companies are prohibited from working?
— Because funds are not regulated according to the principle “everything that is not prohibited is permitted.” There is a specific list of securities in which mutual funds can only invest. And this in no way means that management companies can invest, for example, in promissory notes. The Federal Commission changed the rate of investment in securities of one issuer: for open-end funds to 20%, for interval funds - 30% (previously for both it was 10%). We had to do this because it is now impossible to meet the previous standard, since five securities are actually traded on the market. In addition, we now give six months to adjust the portfolio - it is impossible to do this in a shorter period for objective reasons. But this does not mean that control over mutual funds will become less stringent. On the contrary, if last year we checked 80% of mutual funds, then this year we will check absolutely everything.
— Maybe it’s time to trust management companies more? They would be happy to work, for example, with promissory notes from Sberbank, Gazprom...
— Mutual funds have really been tested for strength. Their assets continue to grow, by July (compared to the end of last year) they had increased by almost 395%. But this does not mean that they should be allowed to work with risky financial instruments. Anyone who wants riskier operations should invest in an interval fund; finally, you can buy shares of industrial enterprises yourself. But low risk and high return do not combine, and therefore institutions with high reliability must remain. In the end, if it were unprofitable, the check fund of NK LUKOIL, for example, would not go through the expensive and time-consuming operation of converting it into a share fund.

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 153 dated 08.26.1999, p. 9