The Belgian Euroclear fund opposes the use of frozen Russian assets – Financial Times

The main holder of frozen Russian assets in the West, the Belgian investment fund Euroclear, has opposed the plan of the G7 countries to use these funds.

This was reported by the Financial Times.

The company holds $191 billion of frozen assets of the Russian central bank out of $260 billion. The plan is to use these assets as collateral to borrow money and transfer it to Ukraine. Russia is being pressured to repay it, and if it refuses, then the assets would be confiscated.

However, Euroclear stated that this would pose risks to the European financial system and expose the company to lawsuits.

“Using assets that do not belong to you as collateral is very close to indirect arrest or future arrest commitment, which could have the same consequences for the markets as direct arrest. We do not see how the Russian central bank can simply acknowledge that everything has been arrested and that Euroclear’s obligations to them have ceased to exist,” said Liv Mostry, the CEO of the investment fund.

She expressed hope that “reason and rationality will prevail” so that trust in the Euroclear system, European capital markets, and the euro would not be affected.

It is worth noting that the USA is in favor of confiscating Russian assets, but Germany, France, and Italy are against it.

Meanwhile, while disputes continue, the European Union has decided to invest these Russian assets and transfer the profits to Ukraine.