On 16 December 2022, the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance (the Ministry) issued a General Licence in connection with the derogation for the National Settlement Depositary (NSD) under the EU’s core asset freeze legislation, EU Regulation 269/2014 (Regulation 269).

According to Article 2 of Regulation 269:

1. All funds and economic resources belonging to, owned, held or controlled by any natural or legal persons, entities or bodies, or natural or legal persons, entities or bodies associated with them, as listed in Annex I, shall be frozen.
2. No funds or economic resources shall be made available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of natural or legal persons, entities or bodies, or natural or legal persons, entities or bodies associated with them, as listed in Annex I.

Under the General Licence the Ministry authorises: the release of certain frozen funds or economic resources belonging to the entity listed under entry number 101 [NSD] in Annex I; or the making available of certain funds or economic resources to that entity.

In consequence no specific and tailored application to the Ministry is required for applying for a license in respect to the derogation under Article 6b(5) relevant to the asset freeze on the NSD. In order to rely on the General Licence, the following conditions must be met:

• the Applicant must terminate by 7 January 2023 operations, contracts or other agreements concluded with, or otherwise involving, the NSD before 3 June 2022; and
• the following notifications to the Ministry after the execution of the relevant steps must be made:

• The Applicant must provide to the Ministry written proof of the termination of operations, contracts or other agreements concluded with, or otherwise involving, the NSD. This proof shall be provided within 10 working days starting from the termination and at the latest within 5 working days starting from 7 January 2023; and
• The Applicant shall also provide to the Ministry, written proof that the operations, contracts or other agreements concluded with, or otherwise involving, the NSD, had been concluded before 3 June 2022.

Council Regulation (EU) 269/2014 can be found here

The General Licence can be found here