Raiffeisenbank has become a participant of the Astana International Exchange Central Securities Depositories (AIX CSD), allowing international institutional investors to hold their assets under the bank’s custody arm.
AIX was formed in 2017 with shareholders including Goldman Sachs, the Shanghai stock exchange and NASDAQ, which also provides the AIX trading platform.
Raiffeisenbank becomes the first international participant of its CSD and will help AIX clients meet standardised legal and operational framework, while simplifying network management and alleviating operational risks in a fast-growing frontier market.
“Raiffeisenbank, a Tier-1 custodian within the CIS region, now joining the AIX CSD means that frontier and emerging markets funds will have a trusted custodian to safekeep their cash and securities within our CSD,” said Anna Kolesnichenko CEO of AIX CDS.
“It is also a clear sign of confidence from an international bank in the AIX marketplace, and a sign for other large international custodians to follow this path.”
Evgenia Klimova, head of custody, Raiffeisenbank praised the efficiency of AIX’s business model in the short period of time the organisation has been running.
“AIX is a platform, which is widely respected by investors,” she said. “Thanks to cooperation with AIX, now Raiffeisenbank covers Kazakhstan’s market fully and performs as the hub for RBI Group in the context of holding assets in one of the key regions of CIS.”