CBR looking 'conservatively' at fate of frozen assets, although EU clarifications encouraging - deputy governor

YEKATERINBURG. Oct 13 (Interfax) - The recent clarifications issued by the European Commission offer some hope as to the fate of assets frozen due to sanctions, but the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is not yet inclined to overestimate the significance of these signals.

The European Commission's explanation published last Thursday as part of the next sanctions package stipulates that authorities of certain EU member states may authorize transactions necessary to close by January 7, 2023 contracts and agreements entered into before sanctions were imposed on the National Settlement Depositary (NSD) on June 3, 2022. NSD, for its part, said that after coordination with Euroclear and external European advisors, it has sent requests for general licenses to the Ministries of Finance of Belgium and Luxembourg to unblock the assets of all non-sanctioned investors and expects to receive general authorization in October.

"We have seen certain decisions by the European Commission, which were made recently, maybe there will be something positive. But so far we are looking at this easing conservatively," CBR deputy governor Philipp Gabunia said, speaking at the NAUFOR conference in Yekaterinburg.

"These assets will have a fairly long history unless something good happens and these assets are unfrozen," he said.

Sergei Shvetsov, head of the Moscow Exchange (of which NSD is part) board, urged conference participants to follow news from the Investor Protection Club and prepare to draw up and audit the list of assets.

"We received confirmation in the last EU sanctions package that there is a window until January 7 for local regulators to unblock the frozen assets that our citizens, companies have through the NSD in Euroclear and Clearstream. And we held a creditors club, we are close to getting such permission, read the message [Investors Protection Club], because you will need some work to prepare lists, to audit these lists, so that we could return everything to clients before January 7," Shvetsov said, speaking at the conference.

"Right now, of course, there are no guarantees, but there is a good chance that the outcome will be positive. So please follow the news of the club and with regard to clients respond promptly to procedural issues [which need to be resolved to unlock assets]. It will be a good story if it works out," Shvetsov said.