Clearstream opens cash correspondent account with Raiffeisenbank Moscow

LONDON (Reuters) – European settlement house Clearstream said on Thursday it had appointed AO Raiffeisenbank Moscow as its cash correspondent bank to help investors collect rouble proceeds on securities deposited outside the country.

Sweeping sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 have all but severed the country from the global financial system, making it impossible for many foreign investors to collect payments on stocks, bonds and other financial instruments.

Clearstream said in the statement on its website that its customers receiving such rouble payments would need to transfer them to their own cash correspondent accounts or make foreign exchange arrangements to withdraw them no later than one day after payment date.

“Given the uncertain context, this situation may evolve in the future,” said Clearstream, which is part of German exchange operator Deutsche Boerse.

Clearstream said in early July that it was no longer able to receive income proceeds into it cash correspondent bank Rosbank after the UK sanctioned Rosbank’s majority owner Vladimir Potanin.

Potanin’s Interros Capital clinched a deal in April to buy Rosbank from French bank Societe Generale. At the time, Clearstream said transactions involving Rosbank and its subsidiaries would be wound down by July 30.

AO Raiffeisenbank, a subsidiary of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker, editing by Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)