The National Clearing Centre (NCC) will ban short selling of PJSC MGKL (Mosgorlombard) shares within a limit of 5 million securities starting November 5. The restriction will take effect after the issuer allowed a technical default on its bonds, and the tax service blocked the accounts of its subsidiaries.
The ban on betting against the stock deprives speculators of the opportunity to profit from falling quotes, while shareholders gain protection from additional selling pressure. Notably, the restriction will cover a volume of 5 million securities — a scale comparable to a significant share of the issuer's free float.
Chronicle of troubles: from a missed coupon to blocked accounts
MGKL allowed a technical default on its 001P-07 series bonds: on October 29, the issuer failed to pay income for the 21st coupon period in the amount of 24.66 million rubles, or 24.66 rubles per security.
Pressure on the group's shares and debt instruments intensified after the Federal Tax Service blocked the accounts of eight subsidiaries listed in MGKL's IFRS financial statements for the first half of the year, totaling about 1.22 billion rubles. A group representative confirmed that the company is monitoring the repayment of debt by individual entities and is interacting with tax authorities.
Already on October 28, MGKL announced a reduction in debt: the total tax arrears of the subsidiaries decreased by approximately 30%, to 800 million rubles. The group paid 567.5 million rubles in taxes over 10 months of 2026, compared with 614.5 million rubles for all of 2025.
Dispute over investor protection around the Moscow Exchange
The decision on MGKL emerged amid a discussion about whose interests the exchange protects. First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Vladimir Chistyukhin criticized the Moscow Exchange for more often siding with issuers than with private investors. The outcome of this dispute will largely determine how thoroughly companies disclose data and how early investors learn about problems such as tax debts.
Sergey Shvetsov, head of the Moscow Exchange's supervisory board, proposed radically reducing the number of audit companies, while the Central Bank advocates tightening admission to their registry. Exchange representative Elena Kuritsyna recalled an issuer that changed its auditor and six months later suffered a series of defaults, while auditors in such cases, according to her, issue opinions without qualifications.
At the same time, the Moscow Exchange is strengthening its role as a price benchmark for citizens far from trading: in October, the venue began calculating cash currency exchange indices for the dollar, euro and yuan in five major cities. The indicators reflect the average buy and sell rate at banks, which simplifies assessing the profitability of exchanging money at a specific branch.
Cryptalist analysis: The MGKL case demonstrates the systemic risk of the Russian debt market, where tax claims against subsidiaries can instantly transform into a default on public obligations. The short-selling ban is rather a technical palliative measure that curbs a cascading fall in quotes but does not eliminate the fundamental problem of the issuer's transparency. For institutional investors, the signal is unambiguous: the quality of disclosure and the independence of audits are becoming critical factors in assessing credit risk.