Financial Services: Russia

(asked on 7th May 2025) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value is of (a) funds, (b) near cash assets and (c) other financial instruments held by (i) the Bank of England and (ii) other UK licensed financial institutions for (A) the Central Bank of Russia, (B) the Russian Ministry of Finance, (C) the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation and (D) any other Russian state entities, by (1) asset type, (2) Russian state entity and (3) financial institution.


Answered by
Emma Reynolds Portrait
Emma Reynolds
Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 15th May 2025

The Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, published in its annual review that £25.03 billion in assets relating to the Russia sanctions regime have been reported as frozen between February 2022 and December 2024. This is an aggregated total of all entities and individuals listed on the Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets, known as Designated Persons.

However, assets belonging to the Central Bank of Russia, the National Wealth Fund of Russia, or the Ministry of Finance of Russia have been immobilised in the UK and across the G7 by sectoral sanctions – rather than with an asset freeze, and therefore their value is not included within the above figure. In the UK, sanctions prohibit UK persons from providing financial services in respect of these assets.

There are sensitivities around publishing the figure for immobilised asset holdings in the UK covered by these sectoral sanctions. It is important a decision to release any detail about these assets it taken on a collective G7 basis.

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