BRUSSELS, December 30. /TASS/. The possible withdrawal of Western companies' assets from Russia’s National Settlement Depository will create operational problems for the Belgian depository Euroclear, which holds around 180 bln euros in frozen Russian assets, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported.
In mid-December, Fitch Ratings warned Euroclear of a possible downgrade of its AA credit rating due to potential liquidity problems associated with plans to allocate a reparations loan to finance Kiev.
Euroclear has hired 200 additional employees to handle frozen Russian assets on a permanent basis, the publication said. It has also strengthened security at its premises and around chief executive Valerie Urbain after she received threats.
The failure of the EU's plan to expropriate frozen Russian assets under the guise of a reparations loan to Ukraine has placed the previously little-known company Euroclear and its Luxembourg competitor Clearstream at the center of a geopolitical struggle over funding aid to Kiev, the FT wrote.
Experts warn that Brussels' intervention in Europe's financial infrastructure could push countries and banks to stop using it, according to the publication. Countries like China and Russia may say they will never want to be in a situation where they are under pressure due to confiscation or use of their sovereign assets, one participant in discussions about the frozen funds said, adding that this will lead to fragmentation of the financial system.
The EU and G7 countries have frozen around 300 bln euros in Russian assets. Nearly 180 bln euros is held in Euroclear. Participants at the EU summit previously failed to agree on the expropriation of frozen Russian assets under the guise of a reparations loan to Ukraine. Instead, a decision was made to allocate 90 bln euros to Kiev through a loan for 2026-2027. The depository has repeatedly spoken out against the expropriation of Russian funds, warning that this could lead to Russia seizing European or Belgian assets in other parts of the world through legal proceedings.