Wall Street revives Russian bond trading after US go-ahead

Several major Wall Street banks have begun offering to facilitate Russian debt trades in recent days, according to bank documents seen by him. Reutersgiving investors another chance to offload assets considered toxic in the West.

Most US and European banks pulled out of the market in June after the Treasury Department banned US investors from buying Russian securities as part of economic sanctions to punish Moscow for invading Ukraine, according to an investor who owns Russian securities. and two bank sources.

Following subsequent guidance from the Treasury in July that allowed US holders to liquidate their positions, Wall Street’s biggest firms have cautiously returned to the Russian government and corporate bond market, according to emails, client notes and other communications from six banks too. such as interviews with sources.

Banks that are on the market now include JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N, Bank of America Corp BAC.N, Citigroup Inc CN, Deutsche Bank AG DBKGn.DE, Barclays Plc BARC.L and Jefferies Financial Group Inc JEF.N, show the documents.

The return of Wall Street’s biggest firms, details of the transactions they offer to facilitate and the precautions they are taking to avoid breaching sanctions are reported here for the first time.

Bank of America, Barclays, Citi and JPMorgan declined to comment.

A Jefferies spokesperson said it was “working within global sanctions guidelines to facilitate our clients’ needs to navigate this complicated situation.”

A source close to Deutsche Bank said the bank trades bonds for clients only on request and on a case-by-case basis to further manage its exposure to Russia risk or that of its clients outside the US, but will not do any new business outside of these. two categories.

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