The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been urged to investigate the listing of Belarusian sovereign bonds on the London Stock Exchange, openDemocracy reports today.
In a letter written by the Belarusian Coordination Council and seen by openDemocracy, the opposition movement called on the FCA to investigate the banks that underwrote the listing of $1.25bn in Belarusian government bonds in London in 2020. The transaction was underwritten by Citi, Raiffeisen, Société Générale and Renaissance Capital, and the FCA is the regulator for the London Stock Exchange.
The letter is the latest episode in a tide of criticism over the UK’s financial links to Belarus. British MPs called on Boris Johnson’s government to investigate London’s role in financing autocratic regimes after Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair passenger jet carrying a dissident to land in Minsk in May.
