Today, Avtobank's annual balance sheet will be published. As Vedomosti learned, the auditor, ZAO Arthur Andersen, refused to certify it. This will not cause the bank any material losses, but will undermine confidence in it.

As Vartan Dilanyan, director of the financial markets department of Arthur Andersen CJSC, told Vedomosti, “the reliability of the balance sheet and profit and loss statement of Avtobank JSCB has not been confirmed due to the fact that the bank has not met the requirements of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Regulation No. 137-P regarding the creation of reserves for forward transactions concluded before August 17, 1998.”

This regulation, which came into force last year, requires banks to create reserves for possible losses on these transactions. Avtobank Chairman Vladimir Ryskin told Vedomosti that he had consciously decided not to create reserves in the amount of 145 million rubles for a forward contract with the French bank Credit Agricole Indosuez in the amount of $27 million. "If I create reserves, this will mean acknowledging the debt to Credit Agricole," Ryskin said. "This will be the bank's actual obligation to pay, which will disrupt my negotiation process." According to the Avtobank chairman, negotiations with the French began even before he came to the bank. According to Roman Kenigsberg, a representative of the FBK auditing company, if Ryskin had agreed to create reserves, this would not have meant that he had acknowledged the debt. It would have simply reflected existing risks, which would not have entailed any legal consequences. However, the head of Avtobank chose not to take risks.

He claims that the absence of an auditor's signature on the bank's balance sheet is simply a "curiosity" related to the situation at Andersen. "Another auditor would have met us halfway," says the banker. "But in a situation where Arthur Andersen is closing [the company's Russian practice was recently absorbed into Ernst & Young. - Vedomosti], when the people who have been auditing Avtobank for all these years have long since quit, we simply could not come to an agreement."

A representative of one of the leading Russian auditing companies says that it has been easy for the employees of ZAO Arthur Andersen to demonstrate their principles recently: their actions no longer affected their relations with major clients. A loyal auditor, according to Vedomosti's source, would have assured the balance sheet with the remark that reserves will be formed next year.

"We have suffered enormous moral damage," says Ryskin. "There have been no such precedents with normal banks." Kenigsberg shares this opinion: "This is an unprecedented case for such a large bank. There will be no material consequences for the bank, but for the reputation and relationships with counterparties, especially foreign ones, this is an extremely negative factor."

The auditor did not sign the balance sheet of Avtobank