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Qual investor requirements. Qualified investor. Status. Confession. Requirements. Criteria. How a legal entity becomes a qualified investor

Status Qualified investor. Agree, it sounds solid. How is that highest level. Investment Guru. Warren Buffett of local importance. Is it so? And why do you need a status. What benefits does it provide? And most importantly, is it really necessary? Or is it just a beautiful picture, a medal that amuses the owner's pride. Like a star Hero of Russia.

We will look at the Qualified Investor (QI) from the point of view of ordinary individuals. That is, you and me, small and medium-sized private investors and traders.

Who can be considered a CI?

If you recognize yourself in one of the three requirements listed below, you can consider yourself a Qualified Investor.

  • Higher economic education + one of the required attestations or certificates;
  • Experience in a company in the field financial markets- 2 or 3 years. depending on the status of the company.
  • The presence on the accounts of the amount of 6 million rubles;
  • Making trade transactions securities per year in the amount of at least 6 million rubles. But at least 10 transactions per quarter and 1 transaction per month.

What gives a status?

Getting the title of a Qualified Investor immediately gives you many undeniable advantages. Before weaklings in the form of private traders. Free travel to public transport, discounts on public utilities, increased pension, access to insider information.))))

In general, as soon as you get CI, you will have a life in chocolate. Money will flow like a river. There will be universal honor and respect.

But seriously, the status gives the right to buy securities that are not available to the general public of investors:

  • shares of foreign companies;
  • Eurobonds;
  • structural notes;
  • purchase of shares in closed mutual funds(ZPIF);
  • ETF for foreign stocks.

Do you need it?

To understand the need to obtain the status of a CI, you first need to know what all these restrictions on the purchase of securities are for and the necessary requirements for gaining access.

In a nutshell.

A qualified investor is a category of investors that has necessary capital. And most importantly, having knowledge and experience in trading securities in the financial markets. Allowing them to make informed choices when investing in risky instruments based on their own analysis.

In other words,

The Qualified Investor Act protects private investors from too risky instruments. Where they can easily lose, if not all, then a significant part of the money.

And in all these requirements, many inconsistencies immediately arise.

I'll cite a few.

There are 6 million and automatically you become a qualified investor. Your grandmother left you an inheritance, won the necessary amount in the lottery.

You are handsome! You have money - here's your badge. You can trade risky instruments.

Knowledge? Experience? What are you talking about? The law says in black and white: If you have 6 million in your accounts, you are ready. ((((

This is from the same opera, as, for example, a person wants to become a surgeon. He has a choice: go to medical school. Spend a few years of your life gaining knowledge. And it's not a fact that he will be able to reach the end. And he should not be expelled from the course in the second or third.

Or you can go the other way. Open your own clinic. And immediately get the "crust". And to accept (the hand did not turn to write the word “treat”) patients.

There is equipment, a room, even spent money on white robes, shoe covers and hats - come and get treated. Tin.

Increased risks. Lack of CI status will prevent you from investing in risky projects (such as venture and hedge funds). Crap. But what about futures market? With its futures and options. And also leverage in trading. Yes, you can lose all your money in just 1 day. If you're lucky, within a week.

But what about Forex? You traded with a leverage of 1 to 100, but 1 to 500? There is simply no chance of survival here. And despite the fact that any student, pensioner, or just a person who absolutely does not understand anything in trading, can throw money and drain all the money.

The risks are many times (or even tens-hundreds of times) higher than, for example, in buying foreign shares or ETFs (for which access is closed).

Turnover 6 million per year. Are you guys serious?

An ordinary trader with an average capital of 100-200 thousand (roubles of course) can easily make such a turnover, not only in a year, but in a couple of months.

But that doesn't mean he's become a Qualified Investor. It seems to me that if we take the annual turnover as a basis, then it would probably still be necessary to add successful (profitable) trading. Any fool can push buttons. Buy-sell. Then again. And again.

But to earn (or at least do not drain the account) - the lot of units.

Our acquaintance would-be surgeon-dentist does not want to study for many years. And he has no money - to open a clinic. No problem. It is necessary to carry out a dozen operations in a year. Cure caries, pulpitis, remove a couple of teeth for someone (no matter what - sick or healthy). Nobody cares about the result. The main thing is statistics on the number of transactions.

Conducted the required number of experiments on patients - get crusts. Well done. Now you are an honored doctor.

The most interesting. Think - "Qualified Investor". Inconsistency of the name and requirements for obtaining this status.

Who is an investor? The person carrying out long-term investments capital for profit.

The key word in this phrase is "long-term".

I have a friend who has several millions (if not tens of millions) in his accounts. Makes only about 5-6 transactions per year. It is supported by the principle of passive investment. And transactions are made only to replenish the portfolio or annual rebalancing. If you do not take into account the amount of capital, then according to the requirements, if he needs to receive a CI, he will not be able to do this.

The law requires (one of the conditions for obtaining the status of a CI) - to make at least 10 transactions per quarter throughout the year.

That is, on average, 1 transaction once a week. Damn, yes, this is trading in an explicit form. What investment?


How to buy securities without status?

If you are jarred by the possibility of CI gaining access to such necessary financial instruments, and you do not have money, a turnover of 6 million per year, too. There is no desire to receive education and certificates. What to do?

Foreign shares. It can be replaced by those trading on the Moscow Exchange. Purchase is available to absolutely everyone.

Also directly, the same US stocks can be purchased through . Without status. Apple, Facebook, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson. And several hundred other papers.

Eurobonds can be bought indirectly on international markets, but through the Moscow Exchange. Either in the form of individual securities (but there are few of them, only about a couple of dozen), or again through ETFs on .

Through Russian brokers, having several thousand dollars, you can access trading on foreign sites through offshore companies. True, the commissions will be expensive.

You can buy "status". A couple of years ago, a broker openly offered me to do this for a small amount of money. Something in the range of 5 - 6 thousand rubles. And no crime. All according to the law.

The broker transferred the required amount (6 million) to the client's account for some time. Then he took it out. But the condition for having six million on the client's account is fulfilled, which means that you can give the status of a Qualified Investor. And as a result, give access to trading on foreign sites.

There is one catch in this. The status will be valid only for this broker. When changing, you will need to confirm the status again.

And finally, having 10-20 thousand dollars on hand, you can go directly to American or European brokers. Sign a service contract and... the whole world will open before you. Virtually any market. You can invest anywhere. No limits.

Successful investment!

A qualified investor is the most professional type of investor who has great opportunities to invest their funds, but is also required to meet a greater number of certain criteria.

It is believed that a qualified investor (CI) is an experienced participant in the securities market, who is able to take on much greater risks than ordinary traders, has a significantly larger amount of capital, possesses analytical skills, and is also able to understand complex stock instruments and use them competently.

Wikipedia defines a CI as an individual or company gaining access to operations in the markets of traded securities, in relation to certain types of issued assets, or other trading instruments, specific types of services, defined exclusively for qualified .


What are the benefits?

This status gives access to those stock market assets that are not available to other players. Foreign securities and some bonds are considered such securities. It also allows you to invest extremely high risk so-called venture capital.

Many venture capital funds only work with holders of researched status.

Some people use the same policy brokerage companies, giving access to international trading. This also includes a number of close-end investment funds that organize their work, focusing only on this class of clients.

The flow of information is also expanding. Using its status, CI is able to request large volumes of reporting from issuing companies and participate in special trading on the Moscow Exchange, if we are talking about the Russian market.

Risks and disadvantages

Despite the advantages, of course, working on such special structures, CI also takes on a certain level of risk, which is several times higher than in standard trading. What risks does this type of depositors bear?

First of all, they are determined by the forms of attachments. Here, not only traditional stocks and bonds, available to all individuals, are used, but also fixed-term and derivative contracts - derivatives.

Participation in closed-end mutual funds can also be endowed with a number of dangers. Often this type of mutual funds is focused on aggressive strategies and is associated with assets of low reliability. This is work on securities of developing companies, venture support for enterprises, aggregate portfolios of various kinds of speculative instruments, and so on.

Institutional enterprises

The status of an institutional qualified investor can also be defined for a legal entity. Basically, these are large funds, banking organizations and brokerage houses.

A good example is Sberbank. This is a huge company with reliable financial flows. In order to expand its trading opportunities, Sberbank must meet the criteria set by law for this class of players.

In order to exercise their right to receive the status, a bank note is issued, as well as documents and financial reports. They help companies describe their capabilities and gain coveted admission to a new level of trading.


Legislative regulation

Russian laws clearly prescribe the conditions for obtaining CI status for both individuals and legal entities. Today, the main such normative act is the instruction of the Bank of Russia, number 3629, which entered into force on April 29, 2015.

It is this legal document becomes the main one, which prescribes the concepts of qualified and unqualified participants, describes the list of parameters, the procedure and requirements for recognizing a person as a CI.

Additionally, the creation of a registry is prescribed. This register serves as a unified database, which is checked by brokers and mutual fund managers who make a decision on accepting a trader as a CI.

List of requirements

In accordance with the above act, all persons applying for research status must meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • Availability of securities or other financial instruments on total amount not less than 6 million rubles.
  • Experience in the structures responsible for working with the Central Bank. This is where experience matters. If the company in which the applicant worked has the required license itself, then the experience is at least two years. In other cases - 3 years.
  • I have a degree in economics state sample. At the time of application, the university continues to work and produce personnel. Yes, if you studied and passed the exam, then this is a plus.
  • The existing qualification of a specialist can also provide an opportunity. It's about specialist certificates. stock trading or an auditor.
  • Availability of foreign certificates: “Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)”, “Certified International Investment Analyst (CHA)” or “Financial Risk Manager (FRM)”
  • Property worth at least six million Russian rubles. The property must be denominated in the Central Bank, funds in accounts with interest, or precious metals, for the same amount.
  • Each quarter, the applicant concludes 10 or more contracts in the market. Their total amount must also be at least 6 million. The frequency of transactions is at least once a month.

How to get a status?

If you meet at least one of the above criteria, then you can try to get a qualified investor license. To do this, you should contact the company providing brokerage services. This includes banks or investment organizations.

Applicant writes an application prescribed form. Documents confirming compliance with the above items are attached to it. If there are more criteria, then it is better.


List of documents

  • A notarized copy of the work book confirming your work experience in the organization. If the organization has a CI license, then a copy of it will also be required.
  • A diploma, if you are a professional economist, from the university that certified you.
  • Certificate “Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)”, “Certified International Investment Analyst (CHA)” or “Financial Risk Manager (FRM)”.
  • Brokerage report confirming that you have entered into trades. Your intermediary will provide it to you.
  • Also request statements showing that your balance sheet contains securities for the entire same amount of 6,000,000 rubles.
  • Bank statement of the account or deposit on which you hold the allowance amount.
  • If your assets are held by a trustee, then his certificate will be required, also in the form of paper.
  • If the assets are in precious metals, then transfer them to cash and present documentation.

Do you need such status?

Increasingly, brokers are reporting that the number of qualified investors is growing. But do they enjoy their privileges?

Approximately half of the holders of such a license continue to work in the old directions, completely without using products intended for CI status.

A logical question arises, why should such a document be obtained? Perhaps people are attracted to status. On the other hand, such participants are subjected to greater pressure from funds and brokerage organizations that offer them investment opportunities that sometimes do not meet expectations.

We also note the more stringent tax control. In fact, the difference between a private person, with and without a license, is small. Today stock market offers a lot of quite profitable opportunities for both camps. Only employees of brokerage organizations become a separate group, for whom such a document allows them to better present themselves. This is a marketing ploy, as well as a banal professional development as an employee.

In Russia, qualified investors may be allowed to trade in securities that are not available to other market participants. These include, first of all, foreign securities.

For legal entities

Legal entities can be recognized as qualified investors if any of the following requirements are met:

  • not less than 200 million rubles. own capital;
  • quarterly execution of at least 5 transactions with securities or other financial instruments within 4 quarters, with a total cost of at least 3 million rubles;
  • not less than 1 billion rubles. turnover (revenue) for the specified period;
  • at least 2 billion rubles. assets according to balance sheet behind Last year, including in trust management.

Also, Article 4 of Federal Law No. 334-FZ of December 6, 2007 “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Investment Funds” and Certain legislative acts Russian Federation» a list of organizations is defined that, in accordance with their professional license, are qualified institutional investors, namely:

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Why was the concept of a qualified investor (CI) introduced?

The general idea of ​​dividing investors into qualified and non-qualified is based on the desire to protect the masses of the population from complex tools that involve increased risks. To make a decision on investing in complex instruments, assessing profitability and risks, investment conditions, liquidity, exit options, special knowledge and skills are required. The presence of such knowledge and skills that allow making meaningful investment decisions is confirmed by the status of a qualified investor.

Indeed, if the product is intended for a mass investor, then the state considers it its duty (and rightly so) to protect its ordinary citizens from the most significant risks, prohibits the use of risky schemes, tools, imposes restrictions on the procedure, terms of mutual settlements, commission rates, etc.

Financial instruments for qualified investors are subject to much more relaxed regulatory requirements. It is believed that if an investor is qualified, then he is able to read and understand all the conditions of investment, assess the risks and make a meaningful decision whether he wants to invest on these conditions.

The concept of a qualified investor exists in one form or another in all developed countries. Our legislation in this matter is in line with global trends.

Of course, the implementation is completely right idea is rather one-sided. Thus, investments in a credit unit investment fund require the status of a qualified investor, and such status is not required to work on Forex. Now answer me, how many percent of investors went bankrupt investing in credit funds, and how many speculating in Forex? Do not know? Then I will answer you. I don’t know about credit funds, but more than 95% of novice speculators go bankrupt on Forex.

But it is not only our legislation that suffers from one-sidedness. The world is no better off. The reason for everything, of course, is lobbying. In the above example, how many credit funds do we have, what are the volumes of investments in them? It is clear that the management companies of these funds do not have enough resources to push through their laws. And what is our turnover in the Forex market? Even by the abundance of advertising on the Internet, it is clearly seen that it is considerable.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that, as elsewhere in the world, among the instruments for qualified investors there are much more really profitable and promising ones and much less outright deception. It is more difficult to deceive qualified investors, and the number of such investors is much smaller than the mass ones, so the segment does not attract real scammers. However, this segment is dominated by purely commercial risks, which should be assessed by a qualified investor based on his qualifications. In general, having the status of a qualified investor is useful, it gives access to many good ways investment of money, inaccessible to an ordinary citizen.

The state has determined General requirements to qualify as a qualified investor. In addition, market participants that sell securities to investors or purchase securities in the interests of an investor develop regulations for recognition as a qualified investor and may establish some of their additional requirements. So if you are recognized as a qualified investor in one place for one asset, then this does not mean that you will automatically be considered as a qualified investor for other assets. For other assets, it may be necessary to go through the recognition procedure again. In any case, you will have to re-recognize the CI if you contact another company, another broker.

The procedure for recognition as a qualified investor is determined by Order of the Federal Financial Markets Service No. 08-12/pz-n dated March 12, 2008. According to this order, an investor may be considered qualified if:

Requirements for Recognizing an Individual as a Qualified Investor

An individual may be considered a qualified investor if they meet any two of the following:

  • owns securities and (or) other financial instruments (the list of financial instruments taken into account is given below), the total value of which is at least 3 million rubles. When determining total cost the specified securities and (or) other financial instruments, the relevant financial instruments transferred individual V trust management; (when calculating the value, assets are valued at a market or estimated price, for more details see the text of the mentioned Order of the FFMS)
  • has experience in Russian and (or) foreign organization, which carried out transactions with securities and (or) other financial instruments:
    • not less than 1 year, if such organization (organizations) is a qualified investor by virtue of paragraph 2 of Article 51.2 of the Federal Law "On the Securities Market" or
    • not less than 3 months, if such an organization (organizations) is a qualified investor by virtue of paragraph 2 of Article 51.2 of the Federal Law "On the Securities Market" and as of the date the person is recognized as a qualified investor, this person is an employee of the specified organization or
    • at least 2 years in other cases;
  • made quarterly at least 10 transactions with securities and (or) other financial instruments during the last 4 quarters, the total price of which for these 4 quarters amounted to at least 300 thousand rubles or made at least 5 transactions with securities and (or) other financial instruments during the last 3 years, the total value of which amounted to at least 3 million rubles.

Requirements for recognition of a legal entity as a qualified investor

According to paragraph 2 of Article 51.2 of the Federal Law "On the Securities Market", qualified investors include:

  • brokers, dealers and managers;
  • credit organizations;
  • joint-stock investment funds;
  • management companies of investment funds, mutual investment funds and non-state pension funds;
  • insurance organizations;
  • non-state pension funds;
  • non-profit organizations in the form of funds that relate to the infrastructure for supporting small and medium-sized businesses, the only founders of which are the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and which are created for the purpose of acquiring investment shares closed-end mutual investment funds that attract investments for small and medium-sized businesses - only in relation to the said investment shares;
  • Bank of Russia;
  • State Corporation "Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)";
  • Deposit Insurance Agency;
  • State Corporation "Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies", as well as entity arising as a result of its reorganization;
  • international financial institutions, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank, European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development;
  • other persons classified as qualified investors by federal laws (there are none yet).

Any other legal entity may be recognized as a qualified investor if it is commercial organization and meets any two of the following:

  • It has equity at least 100 million rubles;
  • made quarterly at least 5 transactions with securities and (or) other financial instruments during the last 4 quarters, the total price of which for these 4 quarters amounted to at least 3 million rubles;
  • has a turnover (revenue) from the sale of goods (works, services) according to financial statements(national standards or rules for accounting and reporting for a foreign legal entity) for the last reporting year at least 1 billion rubles;
  • has the sum of assets according to the data accounting(national standards or rules for accounting and reporting for a foreign legal entity) for the last reporting year, at least 2 billion rubles.
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