Russian central bank withdraws licence from top 50 bank

24 Jul, 2015

MOSCOW: Russia's central bank on Friday withdrew the licence of Rossiysky Kredit Bank, one of the top 50 banks, saying it had broken federal laws and central bank regulations, presented inaccurate financial reports and engaged in high-risk activity.

Rossiysky Kredit Bank was the 45th largest Russian bank by assets as of July 1, according to its financial reporting. The central bank said in a statement that Rossiysky Kredit Bank had hidden grounds for bankruptcy proceedings by providing inaccurate information about the state of its finances.

The central bank also withdrew the licences of two other banks, M Bank and AMB Bank, on Friday and appointed a temporary administration at Tulaprombank.

Central bank head Elvira Nabiullina launched a clean-up of the banking sector when she took on the role in the summer of 2013.

Since then, the bank has removed the licences of over 100 banks involved in suspect activity or high-risk lending, but Russia still has around 750 active banks.

Copyright Reuters, 2015

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