The European Central Securities Depository Association has suspended the National Settlement Depositary (NSD), the Russian CSD, from membership of the Association.
ECSDA said in a statement that it has been monitoring the situation in Ukraine and global response to these developments.
“The Association acknowledges the strong measures taken by the European Union and its allies following the invasion of Ukraine led by the Russian and Belarus regimes,” it says.
“On that basis, the ECSDA Board feels obliged to react to the situation in line with the EU and international stance on the topic.”
Responding to these circumstances, ECSDA’s Board indicates that the ECSDA General Meeting on 9 March 2022 will vote to terminate the membership of its Russian member, NSD.
In advance of this vote, ECSDA has suspended the participation of NSD representatives in all working groups.
ECSDA indicates that it will be monitoring the situation closely as it evolves and hopes for “the quickest reestablishment of peace in the region”.
In a separate announcement, the European Association of CCP Clearing Houses (EACH) indicated that it has suspended National Clearing Centre (NCC) from EACH membership.
“Given the actions of Russia against Ukraine and in consistency with wider EU sanctions, EACH feels that we need to take action, both from the perspective of adherence to current and possible wider sanctions and to act in the best interests of our membership,” says a statement from EACH.
“The EACH Board has therefore decided to temporarily suspend EACH Russian member CCP NCC with immediate effect in line with the EACH Articles of Association”.
Yesterday, the Depositary Trust and Clearing Corporation, the US infrastructure group, declared that is blocking Russian securities from the Bank of Russia and The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
European Bank and Clearstream Banking have also confirmed that they are no longer accepting RUB as a settlement currency through their ICSD businesses and have imposed wider restrictions on certain Russian securities and RUB transfers.
