The European depository Euroclear is preparing to unfreeze a portion of Russian assets in order to compensate investors affected by Russia’s counter-sanctions against the EU, according to media reports.
It is reported that the Belgian Treasury has granted Euroclear permission to unfreeze the funds, although the exact amount of the assets to be released has not been disclosed. The process essentially involves an asset exchange between Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD) and Euroclear.
NSD debited funds belonging to foreign investors from a Euroclear-type C account and paid them to Russian investors. Now, the Belgian regulator has allowed these funds to be compensated to foreign investors using similar NSD assets frozen in Euroclear. In essence, this decision does not affect the interests of Russian investors—it is an asset swap. Russian investors were paid these assets domestically, and now foreign investors will be compensated by Euroclear in Europe, media outlets report.
Experts view this move as “an important political signal” to Moscow, indicating that the EU may be exploring mechanisms for the partial lifting of sanctions, should a de-escalation agreement be reached.
