Procedure to exchange investors' assets could be operating within several weeks - Russian Finance Ministry

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Russia's Finance Ministry expects that the procedure for exchanging investors' assets should be operational within several weeks, and that the exchange process should be functioning around six months, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said in a statement.

"[The procedure to exchange assets will be operating] within a few weeks. The process will function approximately six months, because people will have to make decisions, somehow convey the decisions to their respective brokers, and so on and so forth," Moiseyev told reporters on the sidelines the All-Russia Forum on Corporate Governance - Paths for Development in the New World.

He recalled that participation in the exchange will be voluntary for both Russian and foreign investors. "[The mechanism] will be built in such a way that Russian investors will receive no less than the market value [of assets] at the time of the exchange," Moiseyev said.

According to him, the subcommittee has already discussed and approved approaches to the exchange, and now they need to be coordinated with lawyers.

Frozen assets which are accounted for in the National Settlement Depository (NSD), will fall under the exchange mechanism, the deputy minister said.

In November 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Decree No. 844 "On Additional Temporary Measures of an Economic Nature Related to the Circulation of Foreign Securities", which creates conditions for the exchange of investors' assets blocked in Russia and abroad. According to it, non-residents can buy back blocked foreign securities of Russian investors at the expense of funds on their "C" accounts. Transactions will be concluded "by way of bidding". Russian investors will be able to submit bids for the sale of securities the aggregate initial value of which should not exceed 100,000 rubles.

The Finance Ministry estimates that out of 3.6 million Russian citizens whose assets are blocked, about 2.5 million have investments of less than 100,000 rubles.

First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Vladimir Chistyukhin said in November 2023 that there is no dialog with foreign regulators on blocked assets, but non-residents have an interest in persuading them to give permission for the exchange.

Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov did not rule out that a second stage of the exchange which will cover investors with a larger volume of investments is possible in the future.