Belgium refuses Tinkoff Insurance request to unfreeze assets in Euroclear

MOSCOW. Aug 31 (Interfax) - Belgium's Finance Ministry has refused Tinkoff Insurance's application to unblock its own assets in National Settlement Depository (NSD) accounts at European depository Euroclear, Tinkoff told Interfax.

The application from broker Tinkoff Investments, which includes client assets, is still under review, the company said. Tinkoff Investments said in October 2022 that it planned to ask the Belgian Finance Ministry for a license to unblock assets frozen in NSD accounts at Euroclear.

Earlier in August, it was reported that Tsifra Broker's request to unblock assets at Euroclear has also been refused.

Relations between European central depositories Euroclear and Clearstream and Russia's NSD were essentially cut off almost immediately after the start of the military operation in Ukraine last year. At the time, Russia, responding to tough sanctions, imposed currency and capital restrictions, while the European settlement and clearing systems closed ruble "bridges" and the option of settlements in rubles. The NSD, a division of the Moscow Exchange Group, imposed restrictions on transactions on Euroclear and Clearstream accounts at the beginning of March 2022 on the recommendation of the CBR. The European central depositories, in turn, restricted transactions on NSD accounts.

At the beginning of June 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions on the NSD, leading to its accounts being blocked at Euroclear and Clearstream.

The European Commission issued clarifications in early October under which the authorities of some EU members could allow transactions necessary to close contracts and agreements entered into prior to the imposition of sanctions against the NSD on June 3 until January 7, 2023. Russian market participants filed requests for general licenses from the finance ministries of Belgium and Luxembourg to unblock the assets of all investors not subject to sanctions.