MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. Belgian depository Euroclear has begun unfreezing Russian investors’ assets without obtaining a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), RBC news agency reported quoting a large broker that deals with the unfreezing of such assets.

The press service of the National Settlement Depository (NSD) also confirmed that they had received explanations from Euroclear.

"The NSD continues to assist clients in unblocking assets. Clarifications on the procedure for unblocking the assets were received from Euroclear, and the information was transmitted to NSD's clients," a depository source told RBC.

Gleb Boiko, a lawyer at the NSP Law and Compliance Practice, told RBC that they are aware of three successful cases of such unblocking by different brokers. He said that the asset release mechanism had been agreed with Euroclear about a month and a half ago. According to him, this is a new practice in the market, since the European depository did not use such a mechanism in the summer.

Boiko explained that the special feature of the mechanism is that in the absence of involvement of American individuals or financial institutions in the transaction, Euroclear will not require an OFAC license even to unlock assets related to the United States. One Belgian license will suffice.