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Showing posts with the label Sberbank

Compensation from broker for Russian CFD (contract for difference)

The UK Financial Ombudsman has ordered Interactive Brokers (IB) to compensate an investor that invested in a Russian CFD (contract for difference). In this case the CFD was for 10.000 Sberbank ordinary shares. Interactive Brokers refused to close the position because they could not trade the underlying Sberbank shares Interactive Brokers had bought to cover the CFD contract. From March 2022 onwards, IB raised the margin required for the position to 100%. By August 2024 the interest alone charged on the position had amounted to around USD $12,000.  The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) introduced a margin close-out rule in 2018 that states that CFD providers have to close positions once the net asset value in the investor's account drops to 50% of the required margin. The Financial Ombudsman ruled that Interactive Brokers was required to stop charging interest and other charges on the CFD position once they had to close the position on the basis of the ESMA 50% margin...
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Sberbank dividends over 2022 and 2023

We have received some questions about the Sberbank dividends over 2022 and 2023. The dividends over 2022 for ordinary shares held via Western nominee holders were returned to Sberbank and can be claimed until the 21st of April 2026 (that is when the 3 year statutory period expires). The dividends over 2023 (distributed in 2024) for ordinary shares held via Western nominee holders were transferred to the type C accounts of these nominee holders (such as Interactive Brokers or Citibank). Interactive Brokers has indicated to clients that they are working on the reconciliation in regards to the dividends over 2023 (they have to work out which clients directly claimed these dividends via Raiffeisenbank Russia). Once this process is completed Interactive Brokers is expected to start displaying the Sberbank dividends that have been paid on ordinary shares in the accounts of investors. Dividends on depositary receipts have not been paid over the years 2022, 2023 and 2024. These dividends shoul...
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Payment of Sberbank dividends displayed in Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers has today started to display the payment of Sberbank dividends in the accounts of investors that hold ordinary Sberbank shares via Interactive Brokers (not ADRs). We have confirmed that the dividends over 2024 today showed up in these accounts of clients of Interactive Brokers. The process in which Interactive Brokers displays the dividends confirms the procedure following from the Central Bank of Russia decision that mandates that dividends that are not claimed via the Russian custodian (which is Raiffeisenbank Russia for Interactive Brokers) are forcefully credited to the type C account of the Western nominee holder (in this case Interactive Brokers LLC).
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Update on Russian case law regarding forced conversion: Russian court orders Raiffeisenbank to carry out forced conversion on Sberbank ADR's.

In this post we provide a sixth update on recent Russian court decisions.  Case 6: Forced conversion in 2025 as a result of an unjustified rejection of the request for forced conversion in 2022 The sixth case involves US citizen mr. Zlatin who owned 20,000 ADR's (depositary receipts) of Sberbank via the broker HilltopSecurities. Hilltop refused to carry out a request for standard conversion.  Mr. Zlatin therefore applied for forced conversion. Raiffeisenbank rejected this request because the documents did not meet the standards set by Raiffeisenbank to execute the request for forced conversion. Mr. Zlatin then went to court in Moscow. He filed his claim relatively late in April 2024. When the case came to an end at the end of 2024 the first rulings from the Supreme Court started to come back in other cases. The ruling by the Supreme Court in those other cases that stated that Raiffeisenbank had unjustly set unreasonable standards for forced conversion and forced transfer. This...
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Sberbank dividends over 2024

During today's AGM for Sberbank, that was held via video-attendance, the  shareholders approved the payment of dividends. The dividend over 2024 is 34.84 Rubles per ordinary share and will be paid to shareholders that hold shares at the end of day on July 18th 2025. ADR holders (holders of depositary receipts) will not be able to receive dividends, but may claim dividends after conversion of ADR's into ordinary shares. More information can be found here: https://www.sberbank.com/investor-relations/corporate-governance/annual-meeting-2025  
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Update on Russian case law regarding taking western brokers to Russian courts to transfer securities

In this post we provide a second update on recent Russian court decisions. Case 2: Taking western brokers to court in Russia to transfer securities The second case involves the Cypriot company Lafourcad, that was owned by a Russian individual. Lafourcad wanted to transfer 6,360,000 shares of Sberbank from its account with EFG Bank Luxemburg to its account with the Russian broker Renaissance Capital. EFG Bank refused and mentioned sanctions as the reason to refuse the transfer. Lafourcad then sent an application to the competent sanctions authority in Luxemburg to get authorization for the transfer, which was rejected.  Lafourcad then took EFG Bank to court in Russia for refusing the transfer. The Russian custodian for EFG Bank, Rosbank, which held the Sberbank shares for EFG Bank, was also involved in the case a third party.  The Russian court determined that EFG Bank illegally refused to carry out the requested transfer and ordered Rosbank to carry out the transfer. As a re...
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