SPB Exchange decided to obtain an OFAC license to unlock assets

The main strategy of the exchange to unlock assets is to obtain a license from the American Ministry of Finance, said the HEAD of the site. But the timing of receiving this document and the possible procedure for returning assets are still unknown

St. Petersburg Exchange expects to receive a license from the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and completely unfreeze clients' assets, said Evgeny Serdyukov, general DIRECTOR of the site.

“We are working with a team of international lawyers who are specialists in sanctions. Together with them, we are developing several different scenarios for unlocking client assets. Our main strategy is interaction with the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC),” Serdyukov said.

“We expect to agree on the procedure and obtain OFAC permission to withdraw assets. We intend to return clients' assets in full. Now this is our priority task,” emphasized the head of the St. Petersburg Exchange. He also said that in the near future the exchange will form a strategy for the return of client assets; its stages and approximate timing will be disclosed later.

Only part of the money was not blocked due to sanctions, the exchange previously reported. These are funds in US dollars, Hong Kong dollars, yuan and tenge in the amount of $67 million (about 6 billion rubles at the exchange rate as of the morning of November 30). These funds will be distributed among trading participants in accordance with the exchange’s obligations to them, while payments will be made in Russian rubles at the market rate, Serdyukov clarified.

On November 2, the St. Petersburg Exchange came under blocking American sanctions , which means its isolation from the DOLLAR system and assets denominated in this currency. After the publication of the message about the sanctions, the platform suspended trading in all securities, including Russian and “friendly” Hong Kong ones. On November 6, the platform resumed trading only in Russian assets.

Along with the imposition of sanctions, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published a general license that requires foreign counterparties to terminate relations with the sanctioned St. Petersburg Exchange and withdraw from its securities by January 31, 2024 . it is not yet clear whether this license will allow closing positions or withdrawing foreign assets that investors bought on the St. Petersburg Exchange.

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On November 24, a bankruptcy petition was filed for St. Petersburg Exchange. It became known about it on November 27 from the materials of the file of arbitration cases. Commenting on the situation, a representative of the exchange emphasized that the site did not submit such applications and has no signs of bankruptcy. In the evening of the same day, the COURT returned the bankruptcy petition of the St. Petersburg Exchange due to the lack of mandatory publication of a message about the intention to file a bankruptcy petition on Fedresurs. At the same time, the definition specified that the applicant was the site itself. The exchange itself, in turn, announced possible forgery of documents and announced plans to contact law enforcement agencies.

The head of the service for protecting the rights of consumers of financial services of the Bank of RUSSIA, Mikhail Mamuta, called the situation with the bankruptcy petition of the St. Petersburg Exchange close to a crime. He noted that an investigation is needed both from law enforcement agencies and from the Bank of Russia for possible manipulations in trading in the company’s securities. After the announcement of bankruptcy, shares of the St. Petersburg Exchange immediately fell by 34%, then they began to recover and the final fall by the end of the day was 9.2%. “It looks like the market fell very hard, then quickly grew back, and someone could make money on it,” Mamuta said.