Baltic Bank is one of the oldest commercial institutions that began operations in the Russian Federation in 1989, after receiving the appropriate license from the Bank of Russia. The reliability and level of professionalism is evidenced by the participation of a financial organization in the Deposit Insurance System and the SWIFT community. But not so long ago there was evidence that the Baltic Bank had problems with the Central Bank.
History of development
The Leningrad Innovation and Commercial Bank was renamed the Baltic Bank a few months after the organization. Four years later, he received a license to conduct transactions in foreign currency and joined SWIFT. In 1994, he began working with precious metals, issuing Mastercard cards. At the same time, terminals for receiving plastic cards appeared. A system of remote access to accounts was launched. A year later, the bank began to offer bill loans and sold the first checkbook.
In 1997, the first Baltic Bank ATMs appeared, a cashless payment system was launched, as well as utility bills . Two years later, a mortgage and car loan program was introduced. In 2000, the first VISA Electron, Gold, Business and Classic cards were issued. Following the debit credit card issue started. Baltiysky became a member of the Golden Crown payment system.
By 2010, the range of financial services included: deposits in national and foreign currencies, the sale of credit and payment cards, the provision of loans for various purposes, the opening and servicing of accounts, money transfers, including through the Western Union system, payment acceptance, operations with the Central Bank, rental of safes and so on.
Work results
Over the 24 years of operation, the bank has acquired 18 thousand corporate and more than 2.5 million private customers, has developed a network of offices in 31 cities of the Russian Federation, issued more than 1.3 million plastic cards and established one and a half thousand ATMs. Collaboration with WESTERN UNION, MasterCard and VISA International contributed to the development of the financial institution. In 2012, the credit institution ranked 66th in net assets, 13th in the number of plastic cards and ATMs.
Baltic Bank: problems
08/20/2014 The Central Bank announced the introduction of an interim administration in the "Baltic". This function was assigned to the "Agency for strass deposits" for a period of six months. According to the DIA plan, to maintain liquidity, the bank will be financed by 10 billion rubles during the year. The control over the healing procedure is carried out by the DIA. In the near future should choose a sanatorium.
Recently it became known about the decision of the arbitration court to evict the bank from the building. The lease for the premises expired in May 2013. The document was signed with the Federal Property Management Agency back in 2004. Tenant - "Baltic Bank" (St. Petersburg). Reorganization problems are exacerbated by the internal conflict of shareholders. According to the website, the assets of a financial institution are owned by its president Oleg Shigaev, LLC Baltic Trade House (49.877% each) and Elena Prokhorenko (0.13%). More than a year ago, there were rumors that they wanted to sell the bank. But the shareholders could not agree on a price. To resolve their differences, they went to court.
Read more about rehabilitation
According to analysts, the amount that the Central Bank has proposed for recovery is very small, so there is no need to wait for the queue from the sanatoriums. From its funds, the Bank of Russia will allocate a loan of 10 billion rubles, and the regulator must find an investor to improve the credit organization. But the emergence of reports of dishonest operations of a financial institution with assets worsened the situation. If the information is confirmed, then the data will be transmitted to law enforcement agencies. So far, the bank continues to operate, providing a full range of services without delay and panic.
The problems at Baltic Bank are caused by the presence of a large number of non-working assets. This has led to a risk of liquidity loss. Shareholders and managers cannot manage the amount of more than 40 billion rubles. Such a situation, on the one hand, causes financial problems, and on the other hand, it makes it possible to attract new investors to the Baltic Bank.
Problems with the Central Bank are also caused by the fact that the financial institution has not had a single credit rating recently. It did not store the funds of regional state employees. At the end of last year, Expert RA downgraded the bank due to low capital adequacy ratios and a large amount of receivables.
Obstacles to recovery
According to Interfax, the Baltic Bank takes 69th place in assets. Problems of 2014 may arise during the recovery process. A large credit institution may have new obligations. A substantial portion of the assets was related to the business of the owners. Therefore, there are few who want to sanitize the bank. The exact volume of affiliated assets will be known from the results of the DIA. But there is some data now. The bank has funds in trust for a total of 4.6 billion rubles. The market value of most of them is close to zero. A significant part of the loan portfolio - 18.7 billion rubles - will not be repaid. Formally, "Baltic" made a profit based on the results of three months of 2014. But if you subtract from this amount gifts to shareholders and income from property received free of charge, then the profit becomes a loss. The main candidates for the role of sanatoriums are Alfa Bank and Life Group.
Aggravation of the situation
Another obstacle to recovery is an unbalanced portfolio. The bank raised funds through expensive deposits. But there is nothing to return them. The assets of the Baltic are low-yield. The main activity today is the issuance of loans to legal entities and investment in real estate.
Six months ago, the Central Bank banned a financial institution from accepting deposits from the public. The lawsuit has not been accepted. As a result, in June, information appeared about the delay in payments. "Baltic" explained this by a small lack of cash. Today on the Bank of Russia website there is no data on compliance by a financial institution with liquidity requirements.
Baltic Bank: customer problems
After reports of problems appeared, people ran to withdraw money from their accounts. This could not but affect the solvency of a financial institution. Clients, even with all the necessary documents, could not withdraw deposits as planned. Not to mention the early termination of the contract.
Over the past decade, the level of service has remained virtually unchanged. To open a deposit at the bank, the client must first familiarize himself with a number of restrictions. Firstly, a large commission for the premature termination of the contract. Secondly, only a small amount of money can be credited to the account. The last, and the most incomprehensible thing - at the end of the term of the contract, funds cannot be transferred to another financial institution. The “Baltic Bank” explains the problems of 2014 with the policy of the interim administration. But long before the imposed sanctions, the level of customer service left much to be desired. Numerous customer reviews on the forums confirm this. In order not to be unfounded, we give only some of them.
The most elementary operations (payment of bills, utility bills, etc.) in the department take half an hour - with continuous communication with the bank manager and cashier. Those wishing to make payments through Internet banking will have an additional surprise in the form of installing additional software that is compatible only with the Windows operating system (iOS and Android are not worth talking about). But this is nothing compared to the "individual" signature of each payment of a legal entity by the director. The time for receiving statements of the current day is until 13:00.
A large number of “preliminary” actions, high interest rates for loans and services, a suddenly blocked card, dirty office premises, incompetent staff services are common problems with Baltic Bank, but, as it turned out, are far from the most critical ...
System crash
Recently, forums have posted messages complaining about the theft of money from accounts. Clients receive phone messages about withdrawing money by Internet services, for example, Yandex.Money, without confirming the operation by the card holder. Even the timely submission of an application to the department will not solve the problem. Money will not be refunded to the account. Of course, theft of money from the account is the fault of the client himself. It’s not worth it to leave data on your card on third-party sites. But today, any self-respecting bank will at least impose restrictions on the implementation of non-cash transactions via the Internet, and at the maximum, each time you withdraw funds, it will wait for an SMS confirmation from the client.
On the forums you can also often find customer complaints about changes in the decision on lending at the last moment. The Baltic Bank explains the problems with system failures. Precedents are known when, after a couple of hours after applying for a loan, the client is called back from the bank and invited to the office for paperwork. But already in the department they said that a failure in the program led to an erroneous confirmation of the application. Comments are unnecessary ...
Summary
So, another credit institution that came under the "purge" of the Central Bank is the Baltic Bank. Problems with the Central Bank are caused by the presence of a large number of affiliated assets. This issue is addressed by the DIA. Perhaps if it can be solved positively, new investors will be interested in improving the service. Over the entire period of its existence, the Baltic Bank has not been able to resolve problems associated with poor quality of service on its own.