Over 800,000 Individual Investment Accounts registered on Moscow Exchange

The number of Individual Investment Accounts (IIA) opened with Moscow Exchange reached 801,573 on 21 May 2019, up from 598,000 at year-end 2018, 302,000 at year-end 2017, 195,200 at year-end 2016 and 88,900 at year-end 2015. Brokerage accounts account for 87% of the total, and trust management accounts the remaining 13%.

593,000 IIAs – or more than 70% of the total – were opened by new private investors who previously did not have a brokerage account.

Equities are the most popular asset class among IIA holders, accounting for 85.6% of assets held in IIAs in 2019. Bonds account for 13.2%, and Russian and international ETFs for 1.2%.

Among banks, Sberbank has opened most IIAs for its customers (396,000 IIAs), followed by VTB Bank (74,000) and Tinkoff Bank (52,000). The leading brokerage firms in terms of IIAs opened are BCS (70,000), Otkritie Broker (65,000) and Finam (59,000), and the leading asset managers are Sberbank Asset Management (64,000 IIAs), Otkritie (15,000) and Alfa Capital (14,000). 116 companies have opened IIAs for their customers.

The top regions by number of IIAs are Moscow and the Moscow region (143,000), St. Petersburg (39,000), Sverdlovsk region (27,000) and Bashkortostan (24,000.

Since 1 January 2015, private investors have had the choice of opening an IIA with a broker (brokerage account) or asset management company (trust management). Individuals may make cash contributions of up to RUB 1,000,000 in a calendar year. Funds may be invested into securities market instruments such as equities, government and corporate bonds (including Eurobonds), ETFs, mutual funds, etc. In addition to capital gains, investors are entitled to tax rebates of 13% of their annual cash contribution (up to a limit of RUB 52,000) or to zero income tax on capital gains when the account is closed.