The Central Securities Depository in Kazakhstan has called on clients to withdraw Russian securities from the country, citing US sanctions against Russia's National Settlement Depository (NSD). The depository manages approximately 140 types of securities with the RU prefix, including sovereign debt bonds, corporate bonds, and stocks. The Moscow Times writes about this.
"In the letter, they recommend completing all settlements and removing Kazakhstan's depository from securities with Russian ISINs. The Kazakh depository does not want to see these securities in portfolios," noted Julia Handoshko, CEO of the European broker Mind Money.
If clients do not instruct the withdrawal of Russian securities by the specified date, their assets will effectively be frozen in the accounts of the Kazakhstan Central Depository, warned Kira Vinokurova, a partner at the law firm Pen & Paper.
According to the Central Depository's assessment, from March to December 1, 2022, Kazakh brokers conducted transactions with Russian OFZs totaling 641.1 billion tenge ($1.4 billion). Additionally, in 2022, shares totaling 50 billion tenge ($104.6 million) and other financial instruments amounting to nearly 2 trillion tenge ($4.2 billion) were transferred to the depository.
