SPB Bank will independently contact OFAC to unfreeze its assets

At the beginning of last week, the general director of the trading platform, Evgeny Serdyukov, revealed the main strategy for unlocking clients’ assets. According to the head of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, clients will be offered to obtain individual licenses from OFAC independently. To do this, the site will provide a form and explain the application procedure.

Consequently, SPB Bank will file its own appeal. The organization’s lawyers have already prepared the necessary documents for clients: templates and instructions for applying to OFAC. Both natural and legal persons may submit an application on their own. In this case, an investor, in addition to submitting an individual application, can participate in a collective application.

The day before, on May 19, it became known that the first Russian investor contacted OFAC individually. As Anton Dzhugan, senior banker at Wealth IQ Solutions, told RBC Investments, when preparing the application, the investor encountered difficulties, in particular, with the transfer of securities from an authorized broker to an unauthorized one.

In the fall of 2023, SPB Exchange came under US sanctions, resulting in its isolation from the dollar system, ban on cooperation with US companies, and other restrictions.

After this, the platform decided to focus, in particular, on the IPOs of sanctioned Russian companies. The first such placement will be the IPO of State Enterprise Element. Last week, the electronics designer and manufacturer announced that operations are expected to begin in late May or early June.