Euroclear has unblocked the assets of a client of the Russian company Fontvielle – Kommersant

The European depositary Euroclear has unblocked the assets of a client of the Russian investment company Fontvielle for several million dollars. The client is a citizen of Russia, he does not have citizenship or residence permit in an EU country, he said “Vedomosti” head of the department for working with wealthy clients of Fontvielle Sergei Solovykh.

Mr. Solovykh clarified that the unlocked assets represent securities of the companies Spirit AeroSystems and Hello Group, previously purchased on the St. Petersburg Exchange. The client received the right from Euroclear to transfer them to an account in a foreign bank. According to the representative of Fontvielle, the assets were successfully unblocked thanks to the competent preparation of documents and prompt feedback when interacting with European colleagues.

Mr. Solovykh noted that this is not the first case when a Fontvielle client managed to unfreeze assets, but the first when the holder does not have citizenship or a residence permit in the EU countries. He said that the company has submitted applications to unlock the assets of all frozen client funds, but the number of applications has not been disclosed.

In June 2022, the European depositories Euroclear and Clearstream blocked NSD accounts, which is why some of the securities of Russian investors were frozen. On August 22, at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development, the head of the Ministry of Finance, Anton Siluanov, said that the assets of more than 3.5 million Russian citizens worth 1.5 trillion rubles are now blocked.

The Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance have developed a draft decree on unlocking part of foreign assets for exchange for Russian ones. The Central Bank explained that the draft decree provides for the redemption of blocked securities from Russian investors using funds frozen in type “C” accounts. Type “C” accounts accumulate the assets of foreign investors in Russia. Foreigners from unfriendly countries could not withdraw funds from these accounts after the start of the military operation. According to the regulator, the total amount of funds in type “C” accounts at the beginning of November 2022 exceeded 280 billion rubles. In June 2023, Interfax wrote that by the end of 2022 the figure was close to 600 billion rubles. Launch the power exchange mechanism are planning until the end of this year.

Erdni Kagaltynov