VEB wins arbitration court case against Euroclear
MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - The Moscow Arbitration Court has fully satisfied Russian state development corporation VEB's lawsuit against Euroclear Bank, court records showed.
The details of the ruling were not disclosed because the lawsuit was considered in a closed hearing.
VEB sought $297.16 million from Euroclear in the lawsuit, which was filed last October due to Euroclear's "nonfulfillment of obligations." The National Settlement Depository (NSD) and St. Petersburg Settlement and Depository Center were named as third parties. The court granted VEB's request for a closed hearing in December.
Relations between European central depositories Euroclear and Clearstream and the Moscow Exchange Group's NSD were essentially cut off almost immediately after the start of the military operation in Ukraine in 2022. At the time, Russia, responding to tough sanctions, imposed currency and capital restrictions, while the European settlement and clearing systems closed ruble "bridges" and the option of settlements in rubles.
The NSD imposed restrictions on transactions on Euroclear and Clearstream accounts at the beginning of March 2022 on the recommendation of the Central Bank of Russia. The European central depositories, in turn, restricted transactions on NSD accounts.
At the beginning of June 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions on the NSD, leading to its accounts being blocked at Euroclear and Clearstream.
Lawsuits against Euroclear in Russian arbitration courts have multiplied recently. Bank Saint Petersburg was the first to win a ruling in its favor, when, in January 2023, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied its lawsuit seeking $107.1 million and 489,000 euros from Euroclear. Later the Ninth Arbitration Appellate Court partly changed this ruling at the bank's request, ordering the European depository to pay $107.1 million in the ruble equivalent and taking into account that the claim in euros was dropped. MTS Bank , Rosbank , KZ Rostselmash , Yekaterinburg bank Sinara and others have also won lawsuits against Euroclear in at least one instance.
