AMT Bank license lifted - CBR
MOSCOW. July 21 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia has revoked the banking license of AMT Bank LLC, the CBR's external and public relations department said.
The bank's license was lifted because it was in non-compliance with federal banking law and CBR regulations. This involved the revelation of substantial reporting irregularities and the repeated application during one year of measures stipulated by law "On the Central Bank of Russia."
AMT Bank placed funds in low-quality assets without adequate provisioning against possible losses, the CBR said. The bank did not fully comply with repeated Central Bank requirements pertaining to the validity of asset-evaluation and creation of provisions, which had an appreciable effect on the volume of bank equity, giving grounds for warnings that bankruptcy measures might be applied.
The bank has been put under temporary administration until receivership is imposed or a liquidation administrator appointed. Bank management has been relieved of its authority.
AMT Bank is a member of the deposit-insurance system. The lifting of its banking license is an insurance matter. Considering the amount of deposits with it, this is one of the biggest such instances in the system's history.
AMT Bank is the Central Bank's second biggest debtor for unsecured credits after Sergei Pugachyov's bankrupt Mezhprombank (32 billion rubles owed) with debts of more than 7 billion rubles. The bank's debt to the CBR has been restructured several times since 2009, but repayment has not been forthcoming.
As of July 1, private individuals had deposited a total of 15.6 billion rubles with AMT Bank. That is comparable to the volume of Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) payouts on six banks in entrepreneur Matvei Urin's group.
AMT Bank (formerly BTA Bank) ended Q1 2011 in 83rd place by assets on the Interfax-100 ranking of Russian bank size. Mukhtar Ablyazov controlled the bank after retaining Russian assets in the wake of the Kazakh BTA Bank's nationalization and the leveling of criminal charges in Kazakhstan.