(Finance) – I permits issued by international depositories Clearstream and Euroclear to unlock assets they do not guarantee Russian investors that they will be able to manage these assets again and receive payments on them. This was reported by TASS citing a communication from the Bank of Russia. The international central depository has the task of managing the liquidation and settlement phases of cross-border transactions in securities or currencies, through the connection with the central depositories of the various countries.
The Ministry of Finance of Luxembourg issued the authorization on December 20, 2022 and on Belgian Ministry of Finance it did the same on December 22, 2022. Both regulators have set a very tight deadline to complete the release procedures, i.e. by January 7, 2023.
These are the authorizations for the release of certain frozen funds or assets held at Clearstream and Euroclear by the Russian National Settlement Depository (NSD). This should allow unsanctioned Russian investors to transfer assets from the NSDRussia’s national paying agent that was sanctioned by the European Union in June, to other entities.
“The authorizations issued still do not guarantee that Russian investors will be able to manage the blocked assets again and receive payments for them. Short deadlines, vague wording in the authorizations and the complexity of the unlocking procedure do not give confidence that Western regulators are ready to guarantee the right of Russian investors to manage their properties,” the Bank of Russia stressed.