The Moscow Patriarchate does not comment on the fate of the accounts of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ergobank

The financial and economic department of the Moscow Patriarchate (FCU MP) said they did not have information about the availability of church accounts in the Moscow Ergobank and their fate.

“We do not know anything about the church’s accounts in Ergobank. It is difficult to comment on anything in any way,” the Interfax-religion portal at the FCU MP said the day before.

On Friday, it became known that the Central Bank of the Russian Federation withdrew a license to carry out banking operations with Ergobank. In connection with the loss of liquidity, the bank did not fulfill obligations to creditors and depositors in a timely manner. This is the first review of the license from the Russian bank in 2016.

Meanwhile, the Ergobank website says that more than 60 organizations of the Russian Orthodox Church from 18 dioceses use its services. For its part, the bank on an ongoing basis provides them with charitable assistance in the restoration of temples.

On January 13, the media reported that the Russian Orthodox Church was in negotiations on the purchase of a control package of Ergobank shares, but this information was not confirmed in the Moscow Patriarchate and called a duck.

Ergobank was founded in Moscow in 1994 with capital at 6.5 billion rubles. In the banking system of Russia, it is included in the fourth hundred. The main activity of Ergobank is the lending of the population. In recent years, the bank has been creating a sales and lending network for corporate customers.

The owners of the bank, according to the Interfax agency, are Vyacheslav Barmin (23.5%of the shares), Vladimir Gasparov (23.5%), Vasily Saushkin (20.5%), Valery Meshkalin (directly - 5.4%, about 14%through the company "Dmitrovskaya Corporation") and other individuals.

As you know, the Russian Orthodox Church is legally exempted from paying taxes and the need to provide financial statements. Among the clients of Ergobank are such large structures as the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and Danilov Monastery. The bank served not only current dioceses, but also accumulated the donations of parishioners. In total, the bank has 61 clients of this kind.