SPB Exchange has agreed on a strategy for unlocking the assets of Russian investors

The St. Petersburg Exchange unveiled a plan to unfreeze the assets of Russian investors.

On Tuesday, the trading platform's shares experienced a 13% increase.

The St. Petersburg Exchange's international legal consultants, who specialize in sanctions, have presented a strategy for unlocking the assets of trading participants and their clients after conducting a thorough analysis. This was reported on the trading platform's website.

SPB Bank, the settlement depositary of the St. Petersburg Exchange, is in the process of submitting an official request to OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) with the intention of proposing several mechanisms for unlocking assets. These mechanisms include:

The implementation of the strategy will not be based on the expiration of license No. 76A (January 31, 2024), but will be determined by OFAC and the final release mechanism that is agreed upon with OFAC.

BFM reports that the US Treasury has not yet indicated any willingness to accept Russian investors who traded securities of foreign companies on the St. Petersburg Exchange.

Alexander Timofeev from the Eastern Gate Investment Company believes that the current measures are nothing more than a PR stunt and an attempt to appear as if they are taking action, but he doubts that it will be successful. He does not think that these measures will be of any help to a private investor.

On November 2, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a division of the US Treasury Department responsible for sanctions enforcement, added the St. Petersburg Exchange to its sanctions list. As a result, trading in foreign securities was suspended. OFAC has granted a license to allow for the winding down of operations with the St. Petersburg Exchange until January 31, 2024.

The Russian financial market is led by SPB Exchange, which organizes trading in securities of international companies. There are more than 2,000 shares and depositary receipts of international companies, as well as ETF securities, available for trading on the exchange.