The Central Bank will not redeem blocked Russian assets

The Bank of Russia issued report “Main Directions for the Development of the Financial Market for 2023–2025”. It notes that the Central Bank continues to work on resolving the issue of unblocking Russian assets, including in court. In particular, the Bank of Russia is working “on adequate risk management”, but the regulator does not consider buying out blocked assets.

“Currently, market participants are making efforts to resolve the problem of blocked assets, including in court. The Bank of Russia interacts with financial institutions on these issues in order to adequately manage risks. Eases have been introduced for recognizing banks’ losses on blocked assets. At the same time, the Bank of Russia does not consider buying out blocked assets,” the report says.

State support for Russian investments in foreign assets is called inexpedient in the document of the Central Bank. In connection with these, the Central Bank considers the provision of benefits only for Russian assets.

The document also says that the gradual abandonment of “unfriendly” currencies is inevitable. In this regard, the Bank of Russia did not rule out additional measures that would force the financial sector to use them less actively. One of them may be the direction of directives for state-owned companies. The regulator considers as a priority the transition to settlements in the currencies of “friendly” countries.

At the same time, the Central Bank did not rule out the liberalization of currency control in relation to “unfriendly” countries. This will happen if they introduce sanctions relief against Russia. For example, it unlocks Russian assets.

Due to sanctions against the National Settlement Depository, there were locked securities of Russian residents in the amount of about 6 trillion rubles. November 25 became knownthat the Russian Ministry of Finance is discussing the possibility of exchanging the frozen assets of Russian investors for foreign assets available in Russia.

In May, as part of the sanctions, the European Union froze the assets of the Central Bank of Russia in the amount of about €23 billion, the United States – $100 billion. The European Commission is looking for ways to legalize the confiscated funds and send them to the restoration of Ukraine.

Because of what holders of foreign securities may suffer losses – in the material “Assets surrounded from all sides”.

Anastasia Larina