Maxima Legal obtained a licence for securities blocked in EuroClear

In October 2023, Maxima Legal received its first licence from the Belgian Treasury for both cash and securities of a Russian private investor. It should be recalled that earlier favourable decisions were only for funds.

In our application to the Belgian regulator on behalf of a Russian client with a Cypriot residence permit and account, we asked not only to unblock the funds paid on bonds of European and North American companies, but also to unblock and authorise the sale of these securities with the funds from the sale being credited to a European account. Under the terms of the licence, such transactions are guaranteed by the EU partners and included in the guarantor’s notification.

At the same time, despite the fact that earlier the media wrote that European regulators may negatively perceive such circumstances as:

• the presence, in addition to NSD, of Russian sub-sanctioned banks or brokers in the chain of custody, or
• the use of Cypriot residence permits and accounts

our experience has shown that these facts do not prevent NSD from authorising unblocking.

Considering also the previous positive decisions on unblocking of funds, in our assessment, the probability of unblocking of assets increases if the application requirements developed by the European regulator such as:

• European residence permit (as an advantage)
• a valid European account
• a European guarantor who conducts due diligence of the affected investor and its assets, confirms the source of origin of capital and guarantees compliance of the declared transaction with the requirements of the EU sanctions regulation. It should be noted that the services of a European guarantor are ready to be provided to Maxima Legal clients by our trusted partners – legal and financial firms in the EU and Switzerland
• confirmation of termination of relations with NSD
• confirmation that there is no material benefit from sanctioned entities in the chain between NSD and the broker (if there is a sanctioned broker before NSD).

We would also like to note that since each situation is unique and not all investors can request a licence, Maxima Legal also implements other options to protect investors’ rights, including filing claims with Russian courts against European depositories for damages. For example, our company initiated the first such claim in St Petersburg and is currently representing one of the private investors in the process of recovering from EUROCLEAR BANK SANV the losses caused by the blocking of securities, as well as the amounts of unpaid coupon income and unpaid redemption value of securities.