Alfa-Bank handed over to Euroclear all documents for unlocking clients’ assets

Alfa-Bank handed over to the Euroclear depository a list of customers and their assets with information about new storage locations, according to Telegram channel Alpha Investments.

“In the early morning of January 7, Alfa Investments handed over to the Belgian Ministry of Finance and Euroclear a list of clients and their assets with information about new storage locations. Now the unblocking of assets depends mainly on European regulators. After January 15, we will tell you about the status of the transfer,” the press service said in a statement.

Previously, NSD, through which the absolute majority of Russian securities are transferred, hit under EU sanctions. As a result, most Russian holders of securities can neither sell them nor receive dividend or bond payments.

In mid-December, Alfa-Bank and a number of other Russian financial institutions (brokers and banks) sent documents to the Belgian Ministry of Finance to obtain a special license, which will allow you to unlock the assets frozen in the Euroclear depository. A corresponding request was also sent to the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance to unlock assets in Clearstream.

Later, licenses were granted, and Russian investors were able to transfer assets to other sites. European regulators have ruled that Euroclear and Clearstream must terminate all relations with NSD by January 7th. The Russian depository admitted that these requirements were impossible to meet: its accounts included, among other things, the assets of persons under personal sanctions, and no transactions could be carried out with them. Russian investors have not yet received access to the frozen assets.

Read more about whether the citizens of the Russian Federation still have a chance to return shares and dividends to the accounts of citizens – in the material “Kommersant FM” “Paper Blocked in Europe”.

Erdni Kagaltynov