The Moscow stock exchange, which has come under US sanctions, will not be able to return to clients the currency stuck in accounts at the National Clearing Center , “the daughter” on the exchange, which is responsible for registering transactions on its foreign exchange balances in the United States, dollars and euros, whose exchange trading was suspended on June 13, will be returned to Russian rubles, the exchange said on Thursday, quoted by moscowtimes.ru.
This is foreign currency collateral that brokers hold in accounts at the clearing house, according to the exchange's announcement. It will be returned in rubles until June 28 at the so-called “central rate” of NCC on June 13, specifies the trading platform: it is 89.22 rubles per dollar and 95.7974 rubles per euro.
The currency that Russian citizens and companies hold in brokerage accounts cannot be subject to blocking, and as a result, a forced conversion will be made, the exchange explained earlier. Approximately 5% of foreign currency funds were blocked, according to Digital Broker's estimate. The company, along with other major brokers, including a subsidiary of Raiffeisenbank, Finam and BCS, announced on June 13 that they were suspending withdrawals of dollars and euros from accounts, but this was soon resumed.
A week later, the exchange encountered problems withdrawing Chinese yuan, brokerage Sinara said on Friday. Their reason is the sanctions against the exchange and the NCC, Sinara explained, adding that they are introducing temporary restrictions on yuan transactions for their customers. The exchange itself assured that yuan transactions are “being carried out normally” and without delay in debiting and crediting funds.
On June 12, the Moscow Stock Exchange was included in the “black lists” of the US Treasury Department with its key settlement structures - the NCC and the National Settlement Depository (NSD). The next day, trading in the US dollar, euro and Hong Kong dollar stopped on the exchange, and the Central Bank began to set official rates for transactions in the over-the-counter market.
The de facto only foreign currency available for trade was the Chinese yuan. But trading in the yuan could soon be halted, a source close to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation told Bloomberg. According to him, Chinese banks providing such transactions will most likely gradually cease operations with the exchange due to the threat of secondary US sanctions.