European banks restart Russian bond trading – FT

Several major European banks have followed Wall Street by allowing clients to trade Russian debt once again, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing its sources.

The report highlighted that UBS, Barclays and Deutsche Bank have all resumed allowing clients to sell their Russian debt holdings, in line with similar moves by JPMorgan, Bank of America, Jefferies, and Citigroup in the US.

Other European banks, including Credit Suisse and HSBC, have so far held back from re-entering the Russian debt market owing to their lower risk tolerance, people with knowledge of their activities told FT.

The sources explained that the decisions to restart Russian bond trading had not been motivated by trying to profit from the reopening of the market, but instead were intended to allow clients to wind down their exposure in accordance with sanctions rules.

“This is chiefly for clients who continue to want to unwind,” an unnamed employee of one of the banks that has restarted Russian debt trading told the outlet. “The volumes aren’t that remarkable,” he added.

In July, the US Treasury published guidelines that allowed US banks to facilitate, clear and settle transactions with Russian securities if it helped US holders to gradually dispose of them.
 
Prior to that, the majority of US and European banks had stopped working with Russian securities after the Treasury imposed a ban on transactions with Russian assets as part of the economic sanctions on Moscow.

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