The Bank of Russia is going to provide citizens with the opportunity to independently monitor their bank balance sheets. This will eliminate the situation when depositors cannot receive their funds after the bank’s license is revoked

Photo: Lyubov Mishina for RBC

The Bank of Russia is looking for a way to solve the problem with off-balance sheet deposits, said the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, speaking in the State Duma at the consideration of the annual report of the Central Bank for 2015. One option is to provide citizens with the opportunity to independently check whether their funds are reflected on the bank’s balance sheet.

“This problem has two components. There are banks that, in anticipation of license revocation, simply destroyed databases. We are legally solving this problem by making it possible to request a backup copy of the depositor database from the bank at any time,” said Nabiullina. But recently the Central Bank has been faced with another problem, she added. “If banks are fraudsters, that is, they took money and did not deposit it anywhere (and we have begun to encounter such cases), then we simply will not see it through the backup copy. We are thinking about a mechanism to give citizens a way to check what is recorded in their account,” quotes “Banks. ru" words by Nabiullina .

She recalled the need to store all deposit documents and statements, but noted that many are already accustomed to electronic methods of interaction with banks. “And we need to provide technology so that a depositor can check whether his money is reflected in the account or not,” noted the chairman of the Central Bank.

It is possible to receive a payment if the bank client has saved documents and statements, Nabiullina added. “But now not everyone keeps documents. We need to provide technology that will help check whether these funds are in the account or not,” she said .

In parallel with this, the Central Bank is considering the possibility of using a simpler procedure for including off-balance sheet depositors in the register, said First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Alexey Simanovsky . “The Bank of Russia believes that this can be done not through the court, but by providing all the necessary documents confirming the opening of the deposit,” he said.

The largest scheme for concealing deposits was identified in Mosoblbank, which attracted deposits from the public and took them off the balance sheet. The bank had unaccounted deposits worth RUB 76 billion. The Central Bank decided to rehabilitate Mosoblbank last spring, giving it to SMP Bank and allocating more than 100 billion rubles for financial recovery.

Also, off-balance sheet deposits were discovered in the Lights of Moscow Bank (in the amount of 1 billion rubles), Zamoskvoretsky Bank, in the Novosibirsk branch of the Project Finance Bank and in Dig Bank (900 million rubles). Depositors of the Orenburg NST Bank, which lost its license from the Central Bank on November 16, also encountered problems receiving insured deposits. They cannot receive a refund because the amount of their claims does not match that indicated in the payment register, or the data on deposits is completely missing from the register.

In May 2016, depositors of three banks at once were short of their funds in their accounts - Stella-Bank, Miko-Bank and Crossinvestbank. In total, the DIA received more than 2 thousand applications from “unaccounted for” depositors. According to the registers received by the DIA, depositors of Stella Bank should receive 447.9 million rubles, depositors of Miko-Bank - 650 million rubles, and Krossinvestbank - 1.5 billion rubles. However, many depositors of these banks faced problems in receiving their funds. For example, about 4 thousand Crossinvestbank depositors did not find information about their deposits in the bank’s register. The management of Crossinvestbank fraudulently raised 3.5 billion rubles. funds of the population, which is more than twice the amount of deposits reflected in the bank’s statements, followed from the Central Bank’s message. “In addition, an analysis of the bank’s electronic database carried out by the temporary administration showed that immediately before the revocation of the license, unidentified persons carried out actions that led to the destruction of information about deposit transactions,” the press release said.

The Central Bank has found a way to solve the problem of hidden deposits in banks