At the end of January this year, the well-known Moscow-based Interkommerts bank (reviews of its work can be found later in the article) stopped operations on all accounts and, without giving any reason, began sending its clients to the Deposit Insurance Agency. Many clients of this financial institution learned about this from announcements neatly glued on the doors of bank branches. That's just what happened long before the regulator revoked his license. What is the reason for this? What's the catch? And did the bank representatives know about the withdrawal of their license in advance? Let's figure it out.
Silence and a lot of questions
According to the feedback of many users, that Interkommerts Bank is closing, they learned from the text of the announcement on the doors of offices in Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, Voronezh and Moscow Region. Moreover, in his text there was not a word about the complete liquidation of the organization, but only the termination of all kinds of operations on accounts was reported. Moreover, all clients - to a greater extent this concerned depositors - were invited to seek help from the DIA. It should only be understood that the Deposit Insurance Agency provides compensation only upon the occurrence of an insured event. And it is revocation of the license, announcement of the complete liquidation or bankruptcy of the credit institution. And all this on the basis of the conclusion of the Central Bank.
The lack of an official statement by the regulator also perplexed bewildered investors. Nowhere was there any supporting information that the license was revoked. Interkommerts, in turn, instead of explaining it, simply hid and stood waiting.
“Knock on the closed door and wait for an answer”
At the time of closing the bank branches, no one explained anything to anyone. According to an eyewitness, all the phones of the bank's customer support center were silent. The accounts and, accordingly, the money on them were frozen. Therefore, withdrawing cash or transferring funds to another account was simply unrealistic. Even the bank’s press service turned on broadcast silence.
Moreover, the DIA also did not dare to comment on the actions of the bank. According to the organization’s employees, they cannot be responsible for the actions of organizations that are still active. Whether it’s the case when their license is revoked. And then you can get compensation for frozen deposits. In this case, Interkommerts Bank was not included in the list of sanctioned companies. The impression was that investors simply knocked on the closed door and did not receive any intelligible answer.
The first signs of bank problems
Not so long ago, Interkommerts Bank was one of the top 100 financial organizations in Russia. Problems with this organization, despite its high ratings, began to arise gradually.
At first it was a disruption in payments on deposits. According to customer reviews, they started talking about this for the first time at the end of January. The same data was published on January 27 on the Internet and in the Kommersant print publication. And on January 28, the bank's offices began to issue deposits, but by prior arrangement.
It was necessary to register in such lines three days before the final date. However, later they stopped giving out money even on such a strange schedule. “It all hung up,” users shared their impressions.
Then, the clients of the credit institution began to complain about the blocking of accounts and problems with the transfer of funds from one account to another. And then, on January 29, the Bank of Russia announced the introduction of an interim administration at Interkommerts Bank. At the same time, the interim administration was supposed to work for at least six months.
The regulator explained his decision by the sharp decrease in bank capital of this organization. According to preliminary information, at that time it decreased by almost 30%. On the same evening, representatives of Interkommerts announced the suspension of all current operations on open customer accounts. At the same time, in their statement, they emphasized that this measure is temporary and soon everything will work out.
What is the silence of the bank connected with?
Despite the absence of any explanation from the representatives of Interkommerts Bank, some experts still believe that the appearance of the announcement on the doors of bank branches is an ordinary ignorance and misunderstanding of the whole situation as a whole by the employees of the financial organization.
Recall that there are two scenarios involving the introduction of interim administration. The first of them occurs after the official license is revoked from the bank, which will be an insured event and a reason for contacting the DIA.
The second option is performed without revoking the license. At the same time, the organization itself reserves the right to carry out all the same payment operations that it carried out before the introduction of the provisional administration of the regulator. However, the last resort may well control and limit certain operations in order to prevent a significant outflow of capital from Interkommerts Bank. Contributions in this case play an important role.
Therefore, it is imperative for the interim administration to stop the onset of a massive outflow of capital. Otherwise, this will lead to the zeroing of all banking values and the complete bankruptcy of the credit institution. It would be unrealistic to save such a bank.
The important role of interim administration
The introduction of interim administration in Interkommerts (reviews one can hear about this organization not only in a positive, but also in a very negative way) helps to assess the real financial situation of the bank. As a result of this audit, as a rule, the issue is decided in favor of saving the credit institution or its bankruptcy.
If the regulator’s administration decides in favor of saving the bank, then soon depositors will be able to withdraw their funds themselves. It remains only to wait a bit. Upon revocation of the license, depositors will also receive their compensation, but already from representatives of the DIA.
Still recalled
Despite all attempts to rehabilitate Interkommerts (user reviews confirm this fact), it was still not possible to return it to operation. This event took place on February 8 of this year. Among the reasons for revoking the license were the conduct of a high-risk credit policy, repeated violation of laws and regulations, large debts to creditors and financial fraud.
According to preliminary data, even with unsatisfactory asset indicators, the bank continued to work in the previous mode and did not take into account the existing risks. As a result, he completely lost his own funds, and he was not able to rehabilitate. And this is with all the efforts of the regulator.
What customers think about Interkommerts Bank: reviews
Prior to the revocation of the license, many users spoke positively about the work of the financial institution. They were completely satisfied with his credit and deposit policy, the quality of customer service and much more.
According to other clients of the organization, this bank was not too convenient, but not too bad. Recall that the bank itself has been operating since 1991. He possessed not only a high financial, but also a popular rating. And this means that his level of public confidence was very high. By the way, among the organization’s visitors were not only individuals and entrepreneurs, but also quite large corporate clients. For example, among them were the following companies:
- Transneft
- Federal Customs Service.
- Oboronstroy.
- SME Bank and others.
The largest insured event in the Russian Federation
The revocation of the Interkommerts license became one of the largest insured events in the history of the Deposit Insurance Agency. According to the latest data, the amount of deposits attracted from the population at the time of the introduction of the interim administration amounted to 68.4 billion rubles. Moreover, the Agency itself estimated compensation to depositors in the amount of 45 billion rubles.