Many western investors in Russia use Cifra Broker as their brokerage firm.
Cifra has recently updated their fees. Investors that hold shares via a type C account may have noticed an additional fee being charged recently. This is due to the updated fee schedule by Cifra Broker. This fee does not display in the 'cash movements' in the Cifra App, but can be viewed via brokerage reports. In addition the fee can be seen on the Russian tax tickets that are sent to your email address after paying for the fee.
The fee that Cifra charged is 0.25% of the value of the type C account. If the shares are not traded and no trading price can be established then 0.25% will be charged over the nominal value. The fee is a holding fee for holding shares by Cifra directly in the share registry of the various Russian issuers.
Some may remember that Decree 840 of the President of the Russian Federation mandated that Russian brokers - that would normally hold their shares via the Russian central securities depository (NSD) - would move the shares held in type C accounts to accounts in the shareholder registers that were directly opened in name of these Russian brokers. Under point 2.2.2. of the new fee schedule Cifra charges a holding fee of 0.25% per month for shares being accounted for in their accounts with the Russian registrars that maintain the shareholder registers.
Please note the requirement for Russian brokers to hold the shares in type C account directly via the shares registers ceased on the 31st of December 2025. The Central Bank of Russia has also established the procedure to transfer the shares back to the account of NSD to restore the common chain of custody. The Central Bank Decision can be accessed via the website of the Central Bank of Russia: https://cbr.ru/rbr/dir_decisions/rsd_2025-12-09_34_03/
Under the current fee schedule of Cifra Broker the 0.25% holding fee should no longer apply since it only applies to shares being held by Cifra via their direct accounts in the shareholder registers. As the shares have been transferred back to the central securities depository the holding of shares by Cifra via the registrars should no longer be the case.
How to pay for Cifra's fees
Normally the fees charged by Cifra will be automatically deducted from funds in your account. This can also be from previous dividend payments in your type C account with Cifra.
You can also transfer funds to Cifra. In our experience the most straightforward method to transfer funds to Cifra from outside Russia is to use the account of Cifra Broker with Raiffeisenbank Russia. Euros will automatically be converted into Rubles once the payment hits the account of Cifra with Raiffeisenbank Russia.
Last week we initiated a test payment using the bank details below in euros from a Dutch bank. The payment showed up in the Cifra account after one business day.
The bank details used were:
Account number (BBAN): 40701810900000001523
Account name:
Cifra broker LLC
Address of Cifra broker:
15, 1st Krasnogvardeyskiy proezd, Suite 18.02, Moscow, 123112, Russia
Bank:
AO RAIFFEISENBANK
Bank address:
SMOLENSKAYA-SENNAYA SQ 28
MOSCOW
BIC (SWIFT):
RZBMRUMM
Payment reference: "Client [your account number with Cifra]. Funding of the brokerage account under the Service Agreement". You can just copy the reference Cifra instructs you to use in the app.
Correspondent bank for payments in euros (only required if your bank asks for these details):
Raiffeisen Bank International AG
Address Correspondent bank:
Am Stadtpark 9, A-1030 Vienna, Austria
BIC (SWIFT) Correspondent Bank:
RZBAATWW
Account number with Correspondent bank:
001-55.025.928