"Terra Bank": customer opinion, reviews. "Terra Bank": problems

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

Before going to the bank, each person studies the reviews in detail about him. Terra Bank is one of the Ukrainian financial institutions that has recently attracted the attention of depositors. Today, like many other similar institutions, the enterprise is experiencing some difficulties, and frankly speaking, is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Let's go back in time

Positive reviews, "Terra Bank", which met very often, filled the Internet at a time when the financial institution occupied the 16th place in the NBU rating and was included in the third group of financial institutions. The authorized capital of the bank was UAH 557,141 thousand. Over the last successful reporting period, the financial institution showed a profit of UAH 1,107,892. Net interest income amounted to UAH 71,787. According to the classics of the genre, today a provisional administration has already been introduced in such an institution as Terra Bank. The institution was 16th on the list, in relation to which the state took drastic measures. It is worth mentioning that over the past 4 years, four owners of the organization have changed. The last two owners used the financial institution solely for the purpose of withdrawing money that was attracted from depositors at incredibly high interest rates.

Everything changes

The previously successful and prosperous Terra Bank (Kyiv), which in July 2014 was no longer 16th, but 42nd in the NBU rating, was declared insolvent on August 22. After that, the Deposit Guarantee Fund decided to introduce temporary administration into the institution for a period of three months. In the same period, an active search for investors began. Such actions were the result of a huge flurry of negative customer reviews. People actively filed lawsuits against a financial institution and complained to various authorities due to the fact that the bank grossly violates the law and does not fulfill its obligations to depositors.

Change of leadership is the first step towards instability

After the provisional administration was introduced in an institution such as Terra Bank, a long and very fascinating story of the change of ownership became available to the public. Initially, the financial institution was known as Invest-Kryvbas Bank, established in 1995 on the territory of Krivoy Rog. A decade later, in 2005, the institution received a new name - "Invest-Credit Bank". And only in 2007 did the financial institution appear before the public in the form in which they know it today. The last name change of the bank was initiated by its new owner, who turned out to be the director of the treasury of OschadbankKolobov, Prikhodko and Davidenko worked with him. The post of chairman of the board went to Sergei Shcherbina. According to him, the founders initially did not have a strategy for the development of a financial institution for the future. They just wanted to bring the institution to the general Ukrainian level with a view to its further sale. The active development of the enterprise was carried out without shareholding assets, solely at the expense of profit.

Why are there so many dissatisfied depositors?

Negative reviews, "Terra Bank" which appeared as an institution that does not fulfill its obligations, poured in from all sides. Why does a financial institution have so many clients, if initially it was focused on servicing only enterprises from Kryvyi Rih? The situation is explained by the fact that already in 2007 the enterprise was moved to Kyiv, its branches were opened in such cities as Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa, Kherson and Lvov, in others. In total, there were about 21 branches. The first attempt to sell an already actively developing network was made in 2009. The world crisis of 2008 made adjustments to the plans. The sale deal took place only in 2010. The change of leadership was accompanied by the active prosperity of the institution. Thanks to Kirill Shevchenko and Vadim Kopylov, the Institute's assets have grown to UAH 1.4 billion. At the beginning of 2012, the capital of the institution was equal to 2.9 billion hryvnias. Nothing indicated that in the next few years there would be reports that Terra Bank was not returning the deposit.

Double Resale

Positivethe enterprise development scenario did not last long. Already in 2012 and 2013, the bank was resold twice. A dark story is connected with Tsyplakov, one of the last owners of the establishment. Financial stability was jeopardized when the institution issued a loan to one of the businessman's enterprises in the amount of 40 million. There were rumors that the financing of the business was carried out at the expense of investors. The debt has not been paid, most likely, the owner of the bank himself forgave him. Over the last months of the bank's active work, it attracted depositors with all its might, offering them a deposit with a rate of 26.5%, which is significantly higher than the average indicator on the market. When the time of partnership with depositors expired, Terra Bank refused to issue deposits.

An avalanche of negative reviews

Information about the refusals spread very quickly in society, and people rushed to terminate the contracts and withdraw their money. As a result, there was an outflow of capital. A huge number of dissatisfied depositors is also due to the fact that Terra Bank, whose problems began just a year ago, has established partnerships with the National Aviation University. On the accounts of clients attracted from this segment, according to preliminary estimates, there were 45 million hryvnias. By the time the accounts were completely frozen, the amount of UAH 2.5 million remained on them.

First problems and attempts to save a sinking ship

When negativereviews, Terra Bank took a very interesting position, which clearly indicated that the management was trying in every possible way to withdraw money. In parallel with the active advertising of super-profitable deposits, up to the moment of the introduction of the interim administration and already during the work within the framework of the institution of the curator with the NBU, active lending to enterprises was carried out. A powerful increase in the loan portfolio was carried out at the expense of small investors. It is worth saying that loans in the amount of several hundred million dollars were received by companies with an authorized capital within one hundred thousand hryvnias. The feasibility of funding them could easily be called into question. To say more, such bank clients as VVS-Factoring and Trajectory, Best Course and many others, not only did not have collateral in the amount of loans issued, they did not have directions in which the money provided could be invested. When Krivoy Rog was the home of a large institution, Terra Bank showed great promise. Today, it has turned into a money laundering tool, although it has not been officially proven.

What was hidden from the public?

According to official sources, the first difficulties in the bank were recorded back in 2013. During this period, the operating loss amounted to about 22 million hryvnia per month. It is strange that at the end of the year the total profit of the enterprise amounted to 1.7 million hryvnias. The problem is that the reporting of the financial institution was far from reality. In April, the National Bank of Ukraine made an investment in Terra Bank, the exchange rate inwhich compares favorably with competitors' offerings. The volume of refinancing amounted to about UAH 77 million. At the same time, the bank tried all the time until the introduction of the provisional administration to pay the debt to the state. Even before the administration was introduced, the management staff had been completely reconstructed. Almost all board members were fired. Attempts to sell a financial institution during the crisis were unsuccessful.

What should I do?

The main reason for the bank's problems is the issuance of illiquid loans to affiliated companies. According to the dismissed bank manager, of the 320 million provided in loans, only 80 are repayable. The rest you can just forget about. It is also interesting that the credited companies have completely disappeared. Many do not even have their own resources on the Internet. The registered offices specified during the execution of documents simply do not exist. And some companies even turned out to be registered at the same address. A well-thought-out scheme of fraud on the face. The NBU, in order to somehow liquidate customer deposits, must take active measures. Here we are talking about the recognition of transactions as invalid due to the excess of the lending limit or due to the lack of sufficient collateral from the credited enterprises. The IMF and the interim administration should work closely together to resolve the issue of reimbursing investors.

Will Crystalbank fix the situation?

After detailed investigation of the situationit was decided to create a transitional financial institution "Crystalbank", which in the future should eliminate all the mistakes of the leadership of "Terra Bank". The project is being implemented under the auspices of the Fund of Guaranteed Deposits of Individuals, which gives some hope to depositors for the return of their funds. The FGVFL contributed about UAH 1.522 million to the authorized capital of the transitional institution to compensate for damage to depositors. This amount should be fully returned in 2015. This project is relatively new for Ukraine and its further fate is in question. It is only known for certain that most of the depositors actively receive their payments, albeit outside the regulations. The active prosperity of the innovative financial institution will guarantee that all obligations to all individuals will be fulfilled by the end of 2015. In general, the DGF provides support to about 50 banks, so that a fairly large percentage of depositors have a chance to return their savings.