OREANDA-NEWS  It is possible that after October 12, the US Treasury may once again extend the permit for operations with the Moscow Exchange and its "daughters", since a large number of American investors do not have time to comply with the requirements of the regulator and ask for an extension of the period, Gleb Boyko, lawyer at the law firm Nektorov, Saveliev and Partners (NSP), commented to RIA Novosti.

Earlier on Friday, the US Treasury Department announced that it was extending the authorization for transactions with the Moscow Exchange, the National Clearing Center (NCC), as well as the National Settlement Depository (NSD) until October 12. The license applies to transactions with the Moscow Stock Exchange, NCC, NSD and their subsidiaries.

On June 12, the US Treasury Department introduced a new package of sanctions against Russia, including the Moscow Stock Exchange, NSD and NCC. The Office of the American Ministry of Finance for Control of Foreign Assets (OFAC) previously set the deadline for curtailing operations with the Moscow Exchange, NSD and NCC on August 13.

The lawyer attributed the extension of the general license to the fact that large non-Russian institutional investors did not have time to terminate legal relations with the Moscow Stock Exchange and its structures, including withdrawing securities of their clients. "For example, not all American depository banks of depository receipt programs for Russian shares managed to withdraw from depository agreements and transfer their rights and obligations to other depository banks," he explains.

In addition, OFAC could face a large number of requests from investors who began trying to obtain an individual license, not hoping to have time to use the general license valid until August 13. This is typical for those who are trying to unlock assets blocked on the NSD account in the Belgian depository Euroclear, explains Boyko.
"I believe that another extension is possible. The fact is that the sanctions on the Moscow Stock Exchange affect a huge number of individuals, including institutional investors from the United States, as well as millions of individuals with blocked assets in Euroclear. OFAC cannot cope with such a flow of applications, given its already high workload," the lawyer says.