Banks

Following the Moscow region bank Pushkino, which became the leader in the volume of insurance payments of the Deposit Insurance Agency, another major regional player lost its license. Tula's First Express, according to the Central Bank, was too heavily involved in lending to companies associated with shareholders.

Yesterday evening, the Bank of Russia announced the revocation of the license of one of the largest banks in the Tula region - Bank First Express. As follows from the Central Bank's message, solvency problems were associated with low asset quality. The bank was actively involved by the owners in lending to their own businesses; the Central Bank was provided with significantly unreliable statements that concealed the loss of capital, while management and the owners did not take effective measures to normalize the financial situation. Compared to the volume of deposits of Pushkino Bank, which lost its license in September (over 20 billion rubles), the volume of First Express's obligations to depositors looks modest - as of October 1 it amounted to 6.38 billion rubles, but in its region it is noticeable player.

On Thursday, First Express warned clients about a technical failure that allegedly caused difficulties in making payments; the next day it reported on a database reconciliation, after which it promised to continue working as usual. Yesterday afternoon, information appeared on the First Express website about a significant restriction of operations on the initiative of the Central Bank of the Tula Region. The problems of First Express caused unrest among depositors of other local banks, in particular the Tula Industrialist Bank. “Since Thursday, we started receiving calls from those wishing to withdraw their funds. We would like to note that we have sufficient liquidity, the license is valid, payments are executed without delay,” the Banki.ru portal quotes Olga Beresneva, deputy chairman of the Tula Industrialist Bank.

“The regulator has repeatedly drawn the attention of bank owners to the need to increase capital and take measures to increase financial stability,” says Aleksey Terekhov, Deputy Director of the Banking Audit Department of FBK. “For regional banks that operate traditionally, against the backdrop of declining margins and taking into account the implementation of supervisory measures, this is still more relevant."

Olga Shestopal

"First Express" unhooked from the license