Zee Beam News

22.10.2004 10:56 Mosnews.com

May 13, 2004 â€” Central Bank announces that it is recalling the general banking license from Sodbiznesbank. The bank is charged with money laundering and sponsorship of terrorism. CB appoints temporary administration, but the bank’s management prevents the state officials from entering the office.
May 17, 2004 â€” head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, Viktor Zubkov, announces that his agency suspects another ten Russian banks of engaging in money laundering activities.
May 18, 2004 â€” hundreds of Sodbiznesbank’s clients unsuccessfully try to storm the bank’s office in order to withdraw their deposits.
May 24, 2004 â€” the head office of Sodbiznesbank is stormed with the help of police and court bailiffs. The temporary administration finally begins its work.
End of May, 2004 â€” a number of “blacklists” begin circulating the banking community as the bankers try to guess which banks are suspected by Financial Monitoring Service of money laundering and may be closed anytime soon.
May 29, 2004 â€” a small privately owned Novocherkassk City Bank in the southern Rostov region loses its banking license. Central Bank accuses the bank of numerous violations of the anti-money laundering law and of failing to comply with a number of other laws which regulate banking activities.
June 3, 2004 â€” head of Financial Monitoring Service officially announces that his agency has no “blacklist” of bad banks. However, the banking community is too much involved in the guessing game to take his words seriously.
June 4, 2004 â€” CreditTrust bank, rumored to have the same owners as the under-fire Sodbiznesbank, faces an acute shortage of liquidity as its clients begin to pull out their deposits and other banks decline to provide the bank with necessary cash through the inter-bank loan market. CreditTrust management announces its decision to liquidate the bank.
June 7, 2004 â€” CreditTrust changes its mind and announces that it will resume its normal operations in full no later than June 10.
June 8, 2004 â€” CreditTrust changes its mind once again and sends a petition to the Central Bank authorities announcing the bank’s voluntary liquidation.
June 9, 2004 â€” inter-bank loan market is hit by a serious liquidity crisis. The banks are suspicious of each other, awaiting the news of one another’s liquidation. As a result the banks don’t want to loan each other money and the interest rates on inter-bank loan market soar to a level of 80 percent. Even at these rates no one wants to part with cash and it is virtually impossible, especially for small- and medium-sized banks to secure loans to combat the liquidity shortage.
June 11, 2004 â€” Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Central Bank Chairman. Putin says that there is a definite need to bring order to the banking system, but asks the financial authorities to act with caution. There is no need to “purge” the banking system, says Putin.
June 18, 2004 â€” Sergei Ignatyev, Chairman of the Central Bank, holds a press conference. Ignatyev tells reporters that the situation with ruble liquidity on the Russian inter-bank loan market is stabilizing and that a banking crisis in Russia is highly unlikely.
June 21, 2004 â€” National Association of Stock Market Participants (NAUFOR) discontinues its rating of Paveletsky bank, referring to numerous complaints from the bank’s counteragents who accuse Paveletsky of delaying payments. Central Bank orders the bank to freeze all of its operations, and Paveletsky puts a ban on all payments and deposit withdrawals, and fails to pay its shareholders more than 3 million rubles ($100,000) in dividends for 2003.
Small-sized Commercial Savings Bank ceases all of its operations and fires 95 percent of its staff.
June 23, 2004 â€” medium-sized Dialog-Optim bank limits payouts on personal deposits to 10,000 rubles ($345) a day irregardless of the total sum of deposit. Payments to and for the legal entities and organizations and processed with delays. The bank’s press service denies any liquidity problems.
June 24, 2004 â€” Sodbiznesbank is officially liquidated by the decision of Moscow Arbitration Court. Central Bank an official announcement that it is recalling the general banking license from CreditTrust.
Promeximbank stops all payments which gives a serious reason for worry to the whole banking community. This bank’s bill of collection were quite popular on the inter-bank loan market and now many Russian banks find themselves with hands full of these obligations and no way to claim the money back.
July 2, 2004 â€” president of Dialog-Optim bank announces that the bank has sold all of its liquid assets and fears that the Central Bank may recall its license.
July 5, 2004 â€” clients of Guta Bank begin having problems withdrawing the money from personal deposits.
July 6, 2004 â€” Guta Bank officially announces that it is incapable of making current payments on transactions and of paying out deposits to personal clients. The market is permeated by rumors that Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s top five, is also having problems as the clients are unable to withdraw cash from some of the banks ATMs.
In the evening Alfa Bank’s management releases an official statement claiming that the bank is working in a normal regime and has no problems with liquidity, payments or refinancing.
July 7, 2004 â€” Sergei Ignatyev, Chairman of the Central Bank visits the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, to talk to the deputies about the current situation in the banking sector. Ignatyev tells deputies of a bill prepared by CB experts aimed to guarantee the safety of all personal deposits. The bill makes a provision that if a license is recalled from a commercial bank that is not a member of the account insurance system, the clients would receive compensation up to 100,000 rubles, which will be paid from the Central Bank’s means. CB Chairman also tells the deputies that the measures currently taken by the Central Bank are sufficient to resolve the crisis and once again reiterates that there is no official “blacklist” of bad banks.
Ignatyev makes an announcement that state-owned Foreign Trade Bank (Vneshtorgbank) may buy Guta Bank and will receive a credit to cover Guta’s liabilities to its clients if the negotiations are successful. He also says that an unnamed commercial bank wants to buy Dialog-Optim bank in order to “solve its problems”.
Alexander Gafin, vice-president of Alfa Bank, holds a press conference to make the announcement that his bank fell victim to a premeditated attack. “We have fallen victim to a well-prepared scheme. And we even know who did this and by what means,” the banker says.
A crowd of Alfa Bank’s clients, having heard in the news of impending banking crisis, gather outside the bank’s office. The clients want to withdraw the money from their deposits and to close their accounts.

# posted by Deval : 7:36 PM