"B altic Bank": problems with the "Central Bank" (2014)

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

"B altic Bank" is one of the old commercial institutions that began its activities in the territory of the Russian Federation in 1989, after obtaining the appropriate license from the Bank of Russia. The participation of a financial organization in the Deposit Insurance System and the SWIFT community testifies to the reliability and level of professionalism. But not so long ago there was evidence that there are problems with the B altic Bank with the Central Bank.

Development history

Leningrad Innovation and Commercial Bank was renamed "B altic" a few months after the organization. Four years later, he received a license to conduct foreign exchange transactions and joined SWIFT. In 1994, he began working with precious metals and issuing Mastercard cards. At the same time, terminals for accepting plastic cards appeared. A system of remote access to accounts was launched. A year later, the bank began to offer bill loans and sold the first checkbook.

In 1997, the first ATMs of the B altic Bank appeared, a system of non-cash payments was launched, andas well as utility bills. Two years later, a program of mortgage and car loans was introduced. In 2000, the first VISA Electron, Gold, Business and Classic cards were issued. Following the debit cards, the issuance of credit cards started. B altiysky became a member of the Zolotaya Korona payment system.

By 2010, the range of financial services included: deposits in national and foreign currencies, the sale of credit and settlement cards, the provision of loans for various purposes, the opening and maintenance of accounts, money transfers, including Western Union, payment acceptance, operations with the Central Bank, rent of safes and so on.

Work results

During 24 years of operation, the bank acquired 18,000 corporate and more than 2.5 million private clients, developed a network of offices in 31 cities of the Russian Federation, issued more than 1.3 million plastic cards and installed 1,500 ATMs. Cooperation with WESTERN UNION, MasterCard and VISA International contributed to the development of the financial organization. In 2012, the credit institution ranked 66th in terms of net assets, 13th in terms of the number of plastic cards and ATMs.

"B altic Bank": problems

20.08.2014 The Central Bank announced the introduction of a temporary administration in B altiysky. This function was entrusted to the "Agency for Strass Deposits" for a period of six months. According to the DIA plan, to maintain liquidity, the bank will be financed by 10 billion rubles during the year. The control over the recovery procedure is carried out by the DIA. ATsanators should be chosen soon.

Recently it became known about the decision of the arbitration court to evict the bank from the building. The lease agreement for the premises expired in May 2013. The document was signed with Rosimushchestvo back in 2004. The tenant is "B altic Bank" (St. Petersburg). The problems of reorganization are also aggravated by the internal conflict of shareholders. According to the site, the assets of the financial institution are owned by its president Oleg Shigaev, B altic Trading House LLC (49.877% each) and Elena Prokhorenko (0.13%). More than a year ago, there were rumors that they wanted to sell the bank. But the shareholders could not agree on a price. They went to court to resolve their differences.

More about sanitation

According to analysts, the amount that the Central Bank offered for recovery is very small, so there is no need to wait in line from sanatoriums. From its own funds, the Bank of Russia will allocate a loan in the amount of 10 billion rubles, and the regulator must find an investor to improve the credit institution. But the emergence of reports of fraudulent financial institution transactions with assets worsened the situation. If the information is confirmed, the data will be transferred to law enforcement agencies. So far, the bank continues to function, providing a full range of services without delay and panic.

Problems in the "B altic Bank" are caused by the presence of a large number of "non-working" assets. This led to the risk of loss of liquidity. Shareholders and managers cannot manage more than 40 billion rubles. Such a situation, on the one hand, causes financial problems, and on the other hand, it makes it possible to attract new investors to the B altic Bank.

Problems with the Central Bank are also caused by the fact that the financial institution has not had a single credit rating recently. It did not store the funds of regional state employees. At the end of last year, Expert RA downgraded the bank's rating due to low capital adequacy ratios and a large amount of accounts receivable.

Obstacles to recovery

According to Interfax, B altic Bank occupies 69th place in terms of assets. The problems of 2014 may arise during the healing procedure. A large credit institution may have new obligations. A significant part of the assets was associated with the owners' business. Therefore, there are few people who want to sanitize the bank. The exact amount of affiliated assets will be known based on the results of the DIA's work. But some data is already there. The bank has funds in trust for a total of 4.6 billion rubles. The market value of most of them is close to zero. A significant part of the loan portfolio - 18.7 billion rubles - will not be returned. Formally, B altiysky made a profit based on the results of three months of 2014. But if you subtract gifts to shareholders and income from property received free of charge from this amount, then the profit turns into a loss. The main candidates for the role of sanators are Alfa-Bank and the Life group.

Worsesituations

Another obstacle to recovery is an unbalanced portfolio. The bank attracted funds through expensive deposits. But there is nothing to return them. B altiysky's assets are low-yielding. The main activity today is issuing loans to legal entities and investing in real estate.

Six months ago, the Central Bank banned a financial institution from accepting deposits from the public. The lawsuit was not accepted. As a result, in June there was information about the delay in payments. B altiysky explained this by a slight lack of cash. Today, there is no data on the financial institution's compliance with liquidity requirements on the website of the Bank of Russia.

B altic Bank: customer problems

After there were reports of problems, people ran to withdraw money from their accounts. This could not but affect the solvency of the financial institution. Clients - even in the presence of all necessary documents - could not withdraw deposits in a planned manner. Not to mention the early termination of the contract.

Over the past decade, the level of service has remained virtually unchanged. To open a deposit in a bank, the client must first familiarize himself with a number of restrictions. Firstly, a large commission for premature termination of the contract. Secondly, only a small amount of money can be credited to the account. The last, and most incomprehensible, is that at the end of the contract, it is impossible to transfer funds to another financial institution. B altic Bank explains the problems of 2014 with the policy of the interim administration. But long before the sanctions were imposed, the level of customer service left much to be desired. Numerous customer reviews on the forums confirm this. In order not to be unfounded, we will give only some of them.

Performing the most elementary operations (payment of bills, utility bills, etc.) in a branch takes half an hour - with continuous communication with the manager and bank teller. Those wishing to make payments via Internet banking will have an additional surprise in the form of installing additional software that is compatible only with the Windows operating system (Is and Android are out of the question). But this is nothing compared to the "individual" signature of each payment order of a legal entity by the director. The time for receiving statements of the current day is until 13:00.

A large number of "preliminary" actions, high interest rates for loans and services, a suddenly blocked card, dirty office space, incompetent staff service - common problems with B altic Bank, but, as it turned out, far from the most critical …

System failure

Recently, there have been messages on the forums complaining about the theft of money from accounts. Clients receive messages on their phones about money being withdrawn by Internet services, for example, Yandex. Money, without confirmation of the operation by the cardholder. EvenFiling an application in a timely manner will not solve the problem. The money will not be returned to the account. Of course, when money is stolen from an account, it is the client's own fault. Do not once again leave information about your card on third-party sites. But today, any self-respecting bank will at least impose restrictions on non-cash transactions via the Internet, and, as a maximum, will wait for an SMS confirmation from the client with each withdrawal of funds.

On the forums, you can also often find customer complaints about last-minute changes in lending decisions. "B altic Bank" explains the problems with failures in the system. There are precedents when, a couple of hours after applying for a loan, the client received a call from the bank and was invited to the office for paperwork. But already in the department they reported that a failure in the program led to an erroneous confirmation of the application. No comments needed…

CV

So, another credit institution that fell under the "purge" of the Central Bank - "B altic Bank". Problems with the Central Bank are caused by the presence of a large number of affiliated assets. This issue is de alt with by the DIA. Perhaps, if it can be resolved positively, new investors will be interested in improving the service. During the entire existence of the B altic Bank, the problems associated with the low quality of service have not been able to solve on their own.