Moscow: Russian News Agency TASS reports that the Moscow Exchange is interested in developing the exchange trade in diamonds and is considering a relevant proposal made by the Russian diamond producer Alrosa, Chief Executive of the Exchange Alexander Afanasyev said on Thursday on the sidelines of the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

“We are discussing this issue with Alrosa. It is premature to speak about its implementation now because there is still a lot of interesting questions – technical, technological, regulatory and particularly taxation ones,” Afanasyev said. This product requires standardization: determination of size, form, and transparency of diamonds intended for the exchange trading, he added. “There is a need to create the so-called ‘investment diamond’. This is closer to the exchange product,” Afanasyev said.

Moscow Exchange was established in 2011 by merging the two largest Moscow-based exchanges, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) and the Russian Trading System (RTS). It is the largest exchange group in Russia, operating trading markets in equities, bonds, derivatives, the foreign exchange market, money markets and precious metals.