© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Logo of Sberbank in Moscow, Russia December 24, 2020. REUTERS / Maxim Shemetov / File Photo
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(Reuters) – Fears of being targeted by Western sanctions are preventing Russian brokerages from helping Sberbank by storing clients’ accounts in foreign stocks, three market sources said. finance told Reuters.
Last week, the US imposed full blockade sanctions on Russia’s largest lender Sberbank and the country’s top private bank Alfa Bank, pressuring Russia over what Moscow calls “a special military operation” in Ukraine.
The US Treasury Department has set deadlines to end transactions with Sberbank and Alfa Bank on April 12 and May 5, respectively. The banks said the penalties would not significantly affect operations. their.
Russia has experienced a boom in private investment in the stock market since the onset of COVID-19. Last year, the number of citizens with brokerage accounts was close to 17 million, as people sought to cash in on record numbers of domestic stocks floating at record levels and low deposit rates.
Sberbank, VTB and Alfa Bank, Russia’s largest banks, were also among the top brokers in the face of the latest sanctions, leaving their clients holding foreign stocks with capital needs. with smaller domestic firms.
Sberbank, which had to decide to transfer accounts in foreign shares late Tuesday, asked its customers to contact the bank about the matter.
“We’ve taken action so you can manage your assets without restrictions,” Sberbank said on its website, without detailing where the accounts were transferred.
Many Russian brokerages not targeted by Western sanctions say they do not accept accounts with foreign stocks from Sberbank, leaving customers and the market uncertain about their fate.
A financial market said: “The market situation is unique. The source asked to remain anonymous.
Sberbank did not disclose the name of the custody or brokerage firm it was negotiating with and did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
“Nobody wants to see a huge amount of (customers) coming in, mainly because of the sanctions,” another from a Moscow-based brokerage told Reuters.
Fears of sanctions increased as Alfa Bank suffered severe sanctions after acquiring customers from Russia’s second-largest lender, VTB, one of the first banks to be banned by the West. punishment this year.
A third source at a Russian brokerage said the companies were reluctant to deal with sanctioned banks “after the Alfa affair.”
“Banks are trying to turn their clients over to empty brokers that have licenses but no infrastructure,” the source said.
Several media reports suggested that Sberbank was at some point considering transferring clients to brokerage firm Aton and BCS. The two companies quickly released a statement that they were not involved in the deal.
Brokerage Finam, Tinkoff Bank, Rosselkhozbank, Freedom Finance said Alfa Bank and Sberbank did not ask them to take their brokerage accounts.
Bank of Otkritie, affected by larger Western sanctions, and Gazprombank, subject to British sanctions, did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Alfa Bank told Reuters it was looking for a brokerage firm that could get hold of clients’ accounts so they could continue to trade freely, but a decision on what the company could do has yet to be made. given.
