Central Bank of Russia not in talks with foreign regulators to swap frozen assets of investors

MOSCOW. Sept 1 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia is not in talks with foreign regulators or investors regarding an arrangement to swap frozen assets, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said.

"An exchange can only be voluntary both on the part of Russian investors and foreign buyers. If this needs permission from foreign regulators, then it must be obtained, and it depends on this whether transactions will take place or not," she told reporters on the sidelines of the conference "10 Years of the Megaregulator: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow".

"We are not in talks with either foreign regulators or foreign potential buyers," she said.

The government and Central Bank of Russia have drafted a presidential decree to launch the exchange of frozen assets belonging to Russian and foreign investors, with around 100 billion rubles on accounts to be unblocked at first, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in August.

The Central Bank said later that the decree would enable funds held in Type C accounts to be acquired from Russian investors and that the participation of Russian and foreign investors in the process would be voluntary.

The total volume of funds in special Type C ruble accounts, which, among other things, freeze income from securities owned by "unfriendly" non-residents, exceeded 280 billion rubles as of the beginning of November 2022. The Central Bank has not disclosed this indicator since then. Sources told Interfax the figure approached 600 billion rubles at the end of 2022. The CBR recently disclosed an approximate figure in the regulator's analytical review of the banking sector for the first quarter of 2023. According to the review, funds totaling 700 billion rubles, which had accumulated in Type C accounts, were transferred from the National Settlement Depository to the Deposit Insurance Agency. The CBR's board of directors decided on December 29, 2022, that credit institutions were required to open C accounts in the DIA not later than January 20, 2023.