The CEO of Euroclear, Ms. Lieve Mostrey, warned against the G7’s latest plan to seize Russia’s frozen foreign exchange assets of $300 billion-plus, in order to use them to give war aid to Ukraine. Euroclear, based in Brussels, is the repository of most—some reports say as much as 90%—of those frozen assets.
“Using assets that don’t belong to you as collateral [for borrowing—ed.] is pretty close to an indirect seizing or a commitment to future seizing, which could have exactly the same effects on the markets as a direct seizing,” Mostrey told Financial Times in an interview published Feb. 15. “We don’t see how the Russian central bank would simply accept that has been seized, and that Euroclear’s obligations toward them have ceased to exist. I trust that the prudent, rational will prevail. When we come to a logic of seizing of assets … then you see the trust in the Euroclear system, the trust in the European capital markets, the trust in the euro as a currency, substantially affected,” she said.
