Dr. Prof. Vladimir Boldyrev (Perm State National Research University, Perm, Russia);
Dr. Prof. Valeriy N. Lisitsa (Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia);
Dr. Prof. Anvar I. Khasnutdinov (Irkutsk Law Institute of the Academy under the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, Irkutsk, Russia).
The paper addresses the specifics of nominal holding of securities in accordance with Russian law and its comparison with the trust and nominee services, which are widely available in offshore jurisdictions. It aims to research the features of the legal regulation of nominal holding of securities and to determine its correlation with trust management on the base of the analysis of the current legislation, the theory of trust and trust management, judicial practice of the Russian Federation. It is noted that the nominal holding of securities under Russian law is a unique legal phenomenon that differs from the ownership of shares by a trustee and nominal service in law of most foreign jurisdictions, especially common law countries. The figure of the nominee does not suit to the ideal system of the Russian civil (private) law and is inevitable on the way of conflict with the idea of acquiring rights and duties under his own name. At the same time, it is argued that setting up the rules on nominal holding in the structure of the special (non-codified) law as well as the preservation of such legal phenomenon in the Russian law are relevant and logical.