RTS Stock Exchange

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The RTS Stock Exchange was Russia's first fully regulated stock market and today operates as a fully electronic trading exchange for listed and unlisted equities and derivatives with several different trading boards. The exchange merged with another Russian market Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX} to form MICEX-RTS in December 2011.
 
RTS was ranked the world's tenth-largest derivative exchange by contract volume in 2010, according to the annual Futures Industry Association's survey of the world's leading derivatives exchanges, falling from ninth position the year before. 
The FIA report, published in March of 2011, states that the number of futures and options traded on RTS increased by 31.5% to a total annual volume of almost 624 million contracts.
==Merger with Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX)==
RTS Stock Exchange and Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange MICEX received government approval in September 2011 to merge the two exchanges. In addition, the merged entity will then be converted into a stock-owned corporation that will be able to go through an [initial public offering]], planned for the second half of 2012 or 2013. The IPO is expected to raise at least $300 million.
The merger is designed to bring several improvements to the Russian capital market. First, it is part of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's plan to make Moscow an international financial hub. MICEX CEO Ruben Aganbegyan told Reuters in September 2011 that the merger is aimed at boosting volumes on the exchange, which were about $2 billion daily in 2010. Augmenting that is the expected passage of a law that creates a central depository system starting on January 1, 2012, aimed at creating more liquidity and luring more foreign investment in Russian IPOs and equity listings.
==Backgound==
The RTS Stock Exchange was founded in 1995 as the first regulated stock market in Russia and launched its benchmark RTS Index on September 1, 1995. It operates the Russina equity exchanges RTS Standard, RTS Classica, RTS T+0 and RTS Board, plus the ruble-settled derivatives market FORTS. 
On March 12, 2010 RTS introduced simultaneous execution of futures contacts on the FORTS market and equities trades on the RTS Standard market, reducing expenses and improving trading efficiency for its investors, RTS claims.
One week after that, RTS announced it would begin distributing its electronic market data via Blue Mobile, a product of international financial-information software developer Blue Systems. Blue Mobile will deliver real-time prices on the RTS markets to the mobile telephones of investors anywhere in the world on RTS equities, ETFs, foreign exchange, financial futures, commodities, oil and precious metals markets.
==Recent ventures==
In April 2010 RTS Stock Exchange launched a subsidiary business in the UK through a representative office in London, allowing British-based investors to gain access to Russia's equity markets. The new company, RTS Exchange Europe Ltd., will promote products and services of the RTS group to international securities investors. RTS Exchange Europe will be headed by Ekaterina Troshinkina, who holds an MBA from California State University and previously managed a division of McGraw Hill in Russia. 
==Key people==
Ruben Aganbegyan, CEO of MICEX-RTS
Roman Goryunov has been chairman of the board since 2007. 
==Volume==
==2010==
RTS was ranked the world's 10th largest derivative exchange by contract volume in 2010, according to the annual Futures Industry Association's survey of the world's leading derivatives exchanges, falling from ninth position the year before. 
The FIA report, published in March of 2011, states that the number of futures and options traded on RTS increased by 31.5% to a total annual volume of almost 624 million contracts.
===2009===
RTS was ranked the world's ninth-largest derivative exchange by contract volume in 2009, according to the annual Futures Industry Association's survey of the world's leading derivatives exchanges. 
The FIA report, published in early April 2010, notes that the number of futures and options traded on RTS almost doubled from 2008 to 2009 to hit volume of 474.44 million. Volume on the exchange's headline contract, RTS Index Futures, rose 71.5% in 2009 to just over 150 million.
==Latest news==
RTS and one of its main trading-exchange rival in Russia, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) could be merged into a single unified management system within two years, according to a mid-April report from Russian news agency RIA Novosti. Vladimir Milovidov, head of Russia's Federal Service for Financial Markets, noted that under such an arrangement only settlement depositories for the two would need to be physically merged. 
== References ==