Moscow Exchange plans legal challenge against EU sanctions on NSD (updated)

Flint

01/07/2022 12:25

(Adds detail, background)
    MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - Moscow Exchange, Russia's largest
bourse, on Friday said it planned a legal challenge against
European Union sanctions on the National Settlement Depository
(NSD) and would seek to protect the interests of Russian
investors.     
    The NSD, Russia's domestic paying agent, equivalent to the
Euroclear and Clearstream clearing houses, plays an important
role in the country's financial system and is a key intermediary
with international markets. 
    It was sanctioned by the EU in early June. 
    Financial market entities, including major Russian banks,
brokers and asset managers, agreed on Friday with Moscow
Exchange and the NSD to establish a club that would work
together to protect investors' rights, especially unqualified
market participants. 
    "There are plans to challenge the European Union's decision
on including the NSD on sanctions lists," Moscow Exchange said
in a statement. 
    The EU sanctions on the NSD, as well as other Western
measures aimed at restricting Russia's access to global
financial infrastructure, have blocked many investors' access to
securities held in jurisdictions outside Russia. 
    They have also played a part in driving Russia into its
first major international debt default in over a century,
something Moscow has blamed on the West and labelled a "farce".
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2YE1LD    
    "Foreign infrastructure has been frozen and stopped
performing its function," Sergei Shvetsov, head of Moscow
Exchange's advisory board, said this week.
    He called sanctions that make it impossible to move money
from issuers to investors a "trap of legal uncertainty". 
    

 (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Jason Neely)