Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation (TDCC) and National Settlement Depository (NSD) of Russia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on June 4th, 2020. Following TDCC Chairman & CEO Sherman Lin’s election as Vice Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Central Securities Depository Group (ACG) and becoming board member of the World Forum of CSDs (WFC) in 2019, the signing of this MOU marks another milestone on TDCC’s road to international connection, expanding TDCC’s cooperation scope geographically into Eurasia. TDCC has been actively participating in international activities and dedicating itself to raising Taiwan’s global visibility. This is a positive step to form a long-term partnership that facilitates business innovation and development of Taiwan and Russia capital markets.

Russia is the sixth-largest economy in the world. Both NSD and TDCC are active members of multiple international organizations. NSD is now serving as the Secretariat of the Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories (AECSD), leading the WFC E-learning program, and participating in the Corporate Actions and Proxy Voting Working Group and the Distributed Ledger Technology Working Group of the International Securities Services Association (ISSA). In recent years, TDCC and NSD have similar business tracks with significant achievements in investor services and FinTech application. Under the MOU, the two institutions will be able to engage in constructive dialogues and cooperation on e-Voting, FinTech application, investor services, information services, etc., and foster more international financial specialists through joint workshops, further strengthening bilateral relationship.

NSD of Russia is the 23rd foreign financial institution that TDCC has signed an MOU with. Mr. Sherman Lin said, “The signing of this MOU is the symbol of a new beginning for both sides to work together in the future. The value and the purpose of the MOU will be to utilize the two entities’ advantages and expertise of core businesses to drive innovation and respond to the opportunities and challenges due to the technological impacts on the market infrastructure.” Mr. Eddie Astanin, Chairman of NSD’s Executive Board, said: “This memorandum’s signing is the first important practical step towards building infrastructural channels of interaction between our markets. Judging upon our experience in this area shows there is a significant demand for such form of cooperation among market participants. In the future it will create additional value for investors of both countries.”

About TDCC

Established in October 1989, Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation (TDCC) is an essential infrastructure of Taiwan financial markets, providing registration, custody, settlement, issuers’ services and information services for equities, fixed income securities, mutual funds, etc. TDCC maintains 18 million investor accounts under around 6,500 participant accounts, with a total market value of USD $1.7 trillion for all types of securities under custody as of May 31, 2020. As the central securities depository (CSD) in Taiwan, TDCC has demonstrated the ability to deliver quality services and kept a steady growth of business while forging ahead with the competent authorities to create a secured and efficient market environment over the past 30 years. In addition to post-trade core services, TDCC has been developing business diversification and innovative financial services. Looking into the future, TDCC remains committed to promoting financial digitization and globalization to better serve Taiwan’s capital market. Further information about TDCC is available at www.tdcc.com.tw.

About NSD

National Settlement Depository (NSD) is the central securities depository of the Russian Federation, a part of the Moscow Exchange Group. NSD was founded on 27 June 1996. NSD is Russia's national numbering agency, the substitute numbering agency for the CIS and LOU, authorized to assign the international ISIN, CFI codes and LEI. As of March 31, 2020, the total value of assets held in custody by NSD reached 50.9 trillion rubles. NSD is recognized by the Bank of Russia as a systemically important settlement depository and a systemically significant repository. NSD payment system has the status of systemically and nationally significant. NSD offers its customers a wide range of services, including custody services, cash management services, registration of OTC transactions (trade repository), information services, collateral management services and technological services. NSD carries out all on-exchange settlements and most of the OTC settlements, serves both Russian and foreign securities. Today NSD has accounts with central depositories and international settlement and clearing centers in 8 countries, as well as correspondent accounts with a number of major foreign and Russian banks. Securities of issuers from more than 40 countries are serviced by NSD. Detailed information on NSD's activities is available at www.nsd.ru/en/.