Immobilized Russian assets at Euroclear
The Bank of Russia's reserves blocked in the European Union since February 2022, about 185 billion euros of them at Euroclear in Brussels, whose windfall profits alone go to Ukraine.
The immobilized Russian assets at Euroclear are the Brussels-held share of the Bank of Russia's reserves blocked in the European Union since February 2022, whose windfall profits alone go to Ukraine. Regulation (EU) 2022/334 of February 28, 2022 prohibits any transaction related to the management of the reserves and assets of the Central Bank of Russia. Securities that mature turn into cash, which the central securities depository reinvests: the pile grows. At the end of 2025 the reserves immobilized in the EU were put at about 210 billion euros, some 185 billion of them at Euroclear Bank. Euroclear reported 195 billion euros of sanctioned Russian assets on its balance sheet at December 31, 2025, all counterparties combined. On February 12, 2024, the Council required depositories holding more than one million euros of these assets to ring-fence the extraordinary revenues. Regulation 2024/1469 of May 21, 2024 allocates the net profit to Ukraine, for amounts accrued since February 15, 2024: 1.5 billion paid in July 2024, 2.1 billion in April 2025, 1.6 billion in August 2025. In June 2024, at the Apulia summit, the G7 agreed on the ERA (Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration) loans, 50 billion dollars repaid from those revenues; the EU share is 18.1 billion euros. The principal itself was left untouched. On December 3, 2025 the Commission proposed a reparations loan backed by the assets. On December 12, Regulation 2025/2600, adopted under Article 122 of the Treaty by qualified majority, immobilized the assets with no six-monthly renewal; the same day, the Bank of Russia announced a claim against Euroclear before the Moscow Arbitration Court. On December 18 and 19, the European Council set the reparations loan aside, with Belgium opposed, and funded 90 billion for 2026 and 2027 through joint borrowing. For an insurer, the exposure is retaliation: seizure of Western assets in Russia, expropriation, transfer risk.
Textbook case: a European depository holds 10 billion euros of Bank of Russia cash, reinvested at 3 percent for a year. Gross income: 10,000,000,000 x 3% = 300,000,000 euros. The depository withholds corporate tax at 25 percent, 75,000,000, and a prudential buffer of 10 percent of the remainder for its legal risks, 22,500,000. Contribution paid to the Commission: 300,000,000 - 75,000,000 - 22,500,000 = 202,500,000 euros. The principal stays immobilized, and it is the principal that the Bank of Russia's claim in Moscow targets.
frozen Russian central bank assets, immobilized Russian reserves, Euroclear windfall profits, G7 ERA loan facility, Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration loans, reparations loan, Regulation 2025/2600
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