Euroclear chief: transferring assets to a new structure would bankrupt the depositary

Transferring the frozen Russian assets to the European Union or placing them under the control of a new structure would lead to the bankruptcy of Euroclear, said the chief executive of the Belgian depositary, Valérie Urbain. According to her, 'it is impossible to transfer only the assets while forgetting about the liabilities,' since this would create a huge imbalance and would lead to the bankruptcy of the company, she said in an interview with the newspaper Le Soir.

Urbain called the lawsuits that the Bank of Russia has already filed against Euroclear an additional risk factor — a 'sword of Damocles.'

The EU and the G7 countries froze around 300 billion euros of Russian assets. Roughly 180 billion euros are held in the Belgian depositary Euroclear. Participants in the EU summit at the end of last year were unable to agree on expropriating the frozen Russian assets under the guise of a reparations loan. Instead, they decided to provide Kyiv with 90 billion euros for 2026-2027 through a loan.

The depositary has repeatedly spoken out against the expropriation of Russian funds, warning that this could lead to Russia seizing European or Belgian assets in other countries around the world through the courts.

On October 9, the Spanish newspaper El País reported, citing a source in Brussels, that the European Commission is studying the creation of a special structure to hold the frozen Russian assets with the aim of directing them to support Ukraine. The plan envisages separating out the assets held in the Euroclear depositary and transferring them to a new structure in order to distribute legal risks among EU member states.

The Russian side has repeatedly stated that the use of frozen Russian assets by European countries is robbery, qualifies as a crime and will be punished.