Central Bank of Russia so far sees no prospect of 'all-out swap' of frozen assets, but there are several other ideas

MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - There is no prospect of an "all-out swap" of frozen assets with unfriendly countries in the near future, which is a political issue, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said at conference on the "Russian Stock Market 2023", organized by NAUFOR, the National Association of Securities Market Participants.

She said the freezing of assets was one of the most "painful issues" for the Russian market and the regulator was keen to resolve it.

"Even so, much has been done to reinstate the rights of our investors. This includes the automatic mandatory conversion of depository receipts, the mandatory registration of rights in our Russian infrastructure, and there are the substitute bonds. As a result, we have reinstated the rights of investors for something like 3 trillion rubles, and that is quite a large amount," Nabiullina said.

"Of course some assets remain frozen, and various solutions are possible here. Individual protection for investors - a lot of them are following this path, and, of course, they have to. If we're talking about some sort centralized system for the possible exchange of assets, then this is of course a political issue, it's a question of the consent of both sides, a question of permits from regulators on both sides. I do not see such a possibility in the near future. Nevertheless, this mechanism remains a possible one. By the way, we are discussing various sub-varieties and mechanisms of this market proposal," Nabiulina said.

She said there were several options for resolving the problem of frozen assets that can be carried out faster than an all-out swap. "But in any case, this requires the consent of the other side and at least a show of interest on the part of foreign participants in the Russian market, whose securities were frozen, for this to take place," Nabiullina said.