Frozen assets exchange mechanism should help about 2.5 mln Russian investors get their money back - Siluanov
MOSCOW. Dec 21 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry hopes that about 2.5 million of the 3.6 million Russian investors whose assets are frozen will be able to get their money back under the exchange mechanism set for launch in 2024, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
"A mechanism for the return of frozen assets has been developed to protect our people. It will start working next year. This is our task - to help people who have money blocked in foreign assets. We hope that about 2.5 million of 3.6 million people will be able to receive and get their investments back," Siluanov said at the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 8 signed Presidential Decree No. 844 on Additional Temporary Measures of an Economic Nature Related to the Circulation of Foreign Securities aimed at creating conditions for the exchange of investors' assets blocked in Russia and abroad. It stipulates that non-residents can buy back blocked foreign securities of Russian investors using funds on their Type C accounts. Transactions will be concluded "by way of bidding." The conditions for such transactions will be set by the Government Commission for Monitoring Foreign Investment. The aggregate initial value of securities owned by one resident, which can be transferred within the framework of this mechanism is limited to 100,000 rubles.
There is no dialog currently with foreign regulators on investors' assets blocked in Russia and the West, but there is an interest on the part of non-residents to convince them to give permission for an exchange, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Vladimir Chistyukhin said in November.
Siluanov said earlier that 100 billion rubles would be unfrozen initially. He said Russian citizens have had 1.5 trillion rubles of assets frozen.
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.