On 13 July 2026, the UK OFSI extended the General Licence INT/2025/6641960 by one year to 16 July 2027.
This general licence permits non-sanctioned clients of Russian blocked brokerage/depositary firms (including, major Russian banks which are by now almost in their entirety subject to the UK blocking sanctions) to transfer their assets held with such banks to non-blocked financial institutions without applying for an individual licence from OFSI.
This general licence does not apply to the assets blocked through a chain of depositaries which includes the National Settlement Depositary of Russia (which is subject to the asset-freeze/blocking sanctions in the UK) where an individual licence from OFSI is still required.
In addition to the UK sanctions de-blocking assets with brokerage/depositary firms would also typically require the consideration of, at least, the US sanctions and the EU sanctions.
For the background to the issue, please refer to the video in our series Sanctions 360: Sanctions and intermediated holding of securities.