The Central Bank said that the license issued by NSD of Luxembourg must be studied

The Bank of RUSSIA welcomes any steps to solve the problems of Russians with blocked foreign assets. So RBC in the press service of the regulator commented on the Luxembourg license issued to the National Settlement Depository (NSD).

The Central Bank noted that "additional comments are premature" and the license "requires careful study."

On the eve of the Ministry of Finance of Luxembourg allowed to unfreeze assets, securities and coupon income, which were frozen in the Clearstream international depository due to EU sanctions against NSD. The license, valid until January 7, 2023, allows the “release of certain funds and economic resources” held by the depositary.

NSD is the central depository in Russia. it keeps records of ownership of securities and settlements of transactions. In addition, NSD is an intermediate storage facility for certain foreign securities traded on the St. Petersburg Exchange and the Moscow Exchange. He has accounts with international depositories Euroclear and Clearstream.

In March, Euroclear and Clearstream (headquartered in Luxembourg) suspended NSD's accounts, as a result of which some of the securities of Russian investors were frozen, and dividends and coupons on them stopped coming. On June 3, the European Union imposed blocking sanctions on NSD, implying a complete freeze of the company's assets in the territory of European EU countries, as well as a ban for residents - individuals and legal entities - of these states to carry out transactions and operations with the Russian depository.

Portal Frank Media wrote that by June 10, €4.5-7 billion of funds from banks and investors from Russia were frozen on NSD's accounts. On June 17, Vladimir Chistyukhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, estimated the volume of blocked foreign securities in NSD at 6 trillion rubles. (more than €80 billion).

Banks asked to return euros stuck in NSD in another currency Finance

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In October, the European Commission confirmed the possibility of unfreezing the assets of Russians who did not fall under the sanctions, subject to the appropriate permits from European regulators. At the same time, funds can be unlocked only to complete all transactions with Russian counterparties, such transactions must be completed before January 7, 2023.