On March 19, Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre, spoke at the roundtable “Legal Barriers and Drivers of the Exchange Commodity Market,” held as part of the X Anniversary International Forum “Exchange Commodity Market.” The Forum was organized by the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (Petersburg Exchange).
Prior to the plenary session, an address from Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was read, emphasizing the significant role of commodity exchanges as institutions that foster competition and contribute to the effective functioning of the economy. The address highlighted the expansion of inter-exchange cooperation within BRICS and the EAEU, creating conditions for more flexible pricing, increased trade turnover, the adoption of digital technologies, and improved market governance.
In the photo: Igor Artemyev © spimexforum.ru
Igor Artemyev, President, Petersburg Exchange, stated that the priority of developing exchange and over-the-counter market indicators should be formally included in the strategic planning documents of the Russian Government and the Bank of Russia. He also emphasized the importance of developing calculation methodologies and implementing these indicators within the next three to five years, which, in his assessment, would lead to qualitative improvements in the market environment. Artemyev recalled that at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2024, exchanges from five countries (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan) signed an agreement to create an international system of commodity indicators, with work already underway to expand it within the BRICS framework.
The discussion at the roundtable focused on key issues in exchange market regulation, including cross-border aspects of trading and the role of exchanges as a competitive mechanism for market development. The session was moderated by Elena Sidorova, Vice President, Petersburg Exchange.
Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Centre, emphasized that, according to market participants, the exchange market does not face an excess of legal barriers, but rather a shortage of stimulating mechanisms. He noted that law in this area currently does not sufficiently support the development of market institutions.
He highlighted that historically, exchanges emerged as an organizing principle in understructured and opaque markets. Today, similar conditions are largely characteristic of cross-border trade, which remains less organized and more chaotic than national markets. The institutional gaps in this sphere are increasingly being filled by large monopolistic and oligopolistic structures that develop their own digital coordination mechanisms.
In the photo (center): Alexey Ivanov © HSE University
Ivanov pointed out that legal regulation is being supplanted by technological solutions. He referenced the concept "Code is Law", introduced by Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, according to which digital systems acquire normative force, shaping the behavior of market participants. As a result, where legal regulation develops slowly, technical and organizational regulation — driven by private actors and reflecting their interests — takes its place. At the same time, this creates a significant opportunity for law to act as a driver of change.
“Here I see significant potential for law to become a driver of change: the existing practices, in which oligopolistic capital develops digital platforms, can be rethought and transformed by the state into effective mechanisms for market organization through legal regulation,”
Ivanov stated.
In conclusion, Ivanov noted that the current implementation of the BRICS Grain Exchange initiative is deviating from its originally intended logic. In his view, reducing the project to an infrastructure or information platform does not correspond to the scale of the challenges facing participating states.
“When it comes to the BRICS Grain Exchange or, more broadly, cross-border exchange projects, a high standard must be set from the outset so that the corresponding legal framework acts as a driver for the development of full-fledged exchange trading and market transformation,”
he emphasized.
The International Forum “Exchange Commodity Market” is Russia’s leading industry platform, shaping the development of organized trading in raw materials. The Forum aims to support state policies on competition development, enhance pricing transparency across sectors and regions, and establish national and international systems of price indicators. It brings together producers and buyers of strategic commodities, brokers, banking representatives, logistics and technology companies, foreign exchanges, and regulatory authorities. The X Forum featured participants from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and a delegation from China.
