Updated August 20, 2008

Finam Investment Company will penalize those clients, which don’t conduct any operations with their accounts within half a year. All large brokerage companies have faced the problem of dead accounts, as the majority of clients prefer not to conduct any operations with securities at the falling market. Other brokers are also going to tighten the terms of brokerage services’ agreements for keeping the business profitability.

The statement about amendments to the regulations of brokerage services was posted on Finam’s web site. From August, 18 the investment company obliged its clients to break agreements of brokerage services if no operations on client’s account were conducted during half a year. Otherwise, a broker has a right to impose a fine of clear balance of money facilities on client’s account, but no more than RUR 10 000. Facilities will be written off the clients’ accounts directly.

These measures are directed to "cleaning dead accounts", as in Finam explained. "We have many clients which have opened brokerage accounts, but do not conduct any operations on them. Thus, the company doesn’t get any bonuses as a brokerage or depositary fee, but bears losses of maintaining such accounts", Finam representative Vladislaw Kochetkov explained.

According to the results of 2007, Finam took the 4th place by the volume of operations with securities (RUR 4,9 trillion). The clients number 36 600 people, of which 35 900 are individuals.

The investment companies have faced the problem of inactive accounts that lead to the drop of business profitability, as experts agree. "A client, who doesn’t conduct any operations, doesn’t bring any revenue, still he continues using a broker’s infrastructure, for instance, stock exchange online systems", Zerich Management Company chief executive Alexander Scheglov says.

The companies that have been aggressively conquering positions at the market are the hostages of growth, as experts state. Renaissance Online chief executive Maxim Maletin says that almost all retail brokers have run into the problem of inactive accounts. According to the data of MICEX (Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange), as of August, 1, 564 400 accounts were opened, of which 66 900 are active (deals on them are conducted at least once in a month). Such statistics will compel other brokers to change the rules of customers’ service, as the market participants warn. "In the conditions when companies bear losses due to the financial crisis, the business profitability is of essential importance, therefore the quality of a client base becomes one of the most core tasks of the brokers", BCS Investment Company vice president Maxim Trotsenko marks.

However, the experts asses Finam’s actions as "too radical". "It is improper to impose fines of RUR 10 000 on investors for absence of deals, and compelling them to break contracts in so doing", Alexander Scheglov is convinced. "This can scare active clients off". Today, charging of "a symbolic" fee for using the trading system is the most widespread, as Mikhail Belyaev marks.

The increase of inactive brokerage accounts’ amount is mainly linked to the crisis at the stock market, but not with the reluctance to trade, as experts state. "Today, we have faced the problem, when almost none of the investors will conduct active operations because of the present situation", as Mr. Scheglov supposes. Now a typical investor prefers to refrain from conducting operations in order to avoid losses, the expert adds.