St. Petersburg Exchange admitted blocking $3 billion worth of investor assets – Kommersant

St. Petersburg Exchange reported that $3 billion of Russian investments in foreign securities were frozen after the exchange was included in the US SDN list. Head of the Central Bank (CB) Elvira Nabiullina spokethat since February 2022, Russian investors have reduced investments in foreign securities from $7 billion to $3 billion.

“All these securities (a little more than $3 billion) were blocked after the introduction of US blocking sanctions on November 2,” confirmed “RBC Investments” representative of the press service of the trading platform.

According to Ms. Nabiullina, Russians’ investments decreased from February 2022 to November 2023. She finds balancing broad portfolio diversification with investor protection a challenging topic. As the head of the Central Bank noted, the regulator prioritizes the protection of unqualified investors.

On November 2, the United States imposed sanctions against the St. Petersburg Exchange. Since November 3, transactions on the trading platform are carried out only with certain Russian securities and shares of the exchange itself. Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation statedthat assets blocked on the St. Petersburg Exchange can be exchanged by presidential decree.

About the asset exchange scheme – in the material “Kommersant FM” “The exchange of assets is included in the scheme”.

Laura Keffer