JPMorgan says its Russia assets may be seized after lawsuits in Russia, US

JPMorgan Chase JPM said in a filing on Wednesday that its assets in Russia may be seized after lawsuits in Russian and U.S. courts.

The bank faces several legal challenges over its Russian dealings after the U.S. and European nations imposed economic sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

The value of claims and orders to freeze assets exceeds JPMorgan's available assets in Russia, the largest U.S. lender said. JPMorgan Chase did not specify the amount of its assets in Russia.

A Russian court last month ordered the seizure of funds in JPMorgan accounts after Russian state-owned bank VTB VTBR sued to regain its funds blocked abroad.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan sued Russia's VTB Bank VTBR as the U.S. lender sought to block VTB's effort to recover $439.5 million.

JPMorgan's Russian assets are worth less than VTB's claims alone, a source said. These assets could range from cash to real estate to office equipment. JPMorgan declined to comment beyond the filing.

JPMorgan accused Russian courts of ignoring the bank's contractual rights and obligations, and disregarding its inability to make various payments because of sanctions laws.

JPMorgan said U.S. law prohibits it from releasing funds to sanctioned companies, including VTB, which was put on the U.S. Department of the Treasury's sanctions list in February 2022.

Separately, the bank expects to enter into a resolution with a third U.S. regulator that will require it to pay a civil penalty of $100 million for reporting incomplete trading data to surveillance platforms, it said.

The third agency is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the source said. Before this, the Fed and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had fined JPMorgan on the same issue. The CFTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.