Sudostroitelny Bank, or SB Bank, experienced problems with liquidity simultaneously with other Russian banks at the end of 2014. This period saw the peak of the economic crisis. The fall of the ruble, the decline in oil prices, unstable foreign economic relations and many other factors influenced the development of events.
First official statements
SB Bank began to experience problems in its work even before official statements appeared. It was January 16, 2015 that the difficulties faced by the credit institution were made public. In fact, the first violations of the work schedule occurred at the end of 2014. It was during this period that failures in payments of the conversion type began. Sending funds from accounts in one currency to accounts in another started with a significant delay. Legal entities faced a daily delay in transferring funds. The situation was explained by the company's management as a consequence of excessive customer activity. At this, the financial institution SB Bank did not end the problems. By the end of January, payment of deposits began to be severely limited, and payment orders were delayed for 2-3 days. Experts managed to fix difficulties with repo transactions.
Loud fall
As of December 1, 2014, when the economic imbalance in the country was only heating up, SB Bank took the 80th place in the country in terms of assets. In terms of net profit, he held the 22nd position in the ranking. In 2013, the financial institution was one of the 20 most active operators in the interbank market. Starting in mid-January 2015, Standard & Poor's international agency assigned the bank a new rating. The status of the institution was lowered from the “B-” level to “CCC”, which can be interpreted as a pre-default position. A forecast was made, according to which there is a high probability of the Central Bank interfering in the institution.
First rumors and negative reviews
SB Bank could not hide and veil problems from its customers in the early stages of their appearance. Difficulties began to arise by the end of 2014, as mentioned above. Many customers began to complain about a reduction in the overdraft limit, including old cards. There is a category of people who noted a delay in payments, which, as they approached the New Year, became longer and longer. By mid-January, massive claims were poured against the bank due to the refusal to pay deposits. There were reports in which clients said that a financial institution arbitrarily changes the date of receipt of payments to the bank. It was not possible to conceal the fact that SB Bank does not make payments. This provoked a powerful outflow of capital and exacerbated the situation.
Lack of chance to solve problems
SB Bank financial institution was not able to solve liquidity problems on its own. Having collected deposits from the population of 16.4 billion rubles, the bank simply could not cope with its obligations. As problems arose, no improvement was planned, and the bank's management was not able to explain the reasons for what was happening. The limit on the issuance of funds, which was supposed to be a temporary measure, gradually decreased from 100 to 50 thousand rubles a day. As a result of delays in payments, people faced such unpleasant situations as untimely payment of taxes and delays in payments on loans. Andrei Egorov, who at the end of 2014 served as president of a financial institution, systematically refused to comment on the situation. He headed the bank since 2011 and handed over his powers, and his place went to Vasily Melnikov.
What determined the situation?
SB Bank does not make payments, does not pay deposits, does not carry out conversion operations - these are just a few of the signals that have become harbingers of liquidity problems. According to the counterparty, the revaluation of OFZs significantly affected the situation. In particular, on December 16, OFZs, the payment of which was scheduled for 2028, fell in price by 12.5 points, which amounted to 53% of the nominal.
OFZs, whose maturity was due in December 2019, decreased by 11.2 points - about 65.1% of the nominal. A source of information close to the leadership said that the amount of funds that had to be paid to a financial institution of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation exceeded the amount of 2 billion rubles.
Circumstances were supplemented by an increase in the interest rate, an increase in the level of guarantee coverage within the exchange, which led to a shortage of collateral. We can add the fact that about 12% of the institution's liabilities, equivalent to 10.2 billion rubles, are funds raised in the Central Bank.
Why did the economic crisis affect the activities of the bank?
It is well known that the bank, which appears in the financial sector of the country as SB Bank, has its license revoked due to low liquidity. Many sources report that the cardinal effect on the financial institution from the side of economic changes is justified by the use of a complex funding scheme by the bank, which is characterized by a strong dependence on repos carried out in the Central Bank. Despite the presence of a powerful liquidity cushion, the external conditions that had formed by the end of 2014 played the role of a trigger in the emergence of urgent problems. Analysts and experts have already foreshadowed the fact that no one will undertake to improve the financial institution. SB Bank of Russia simply went to the bottom, like many of its competitors.
Interim administration
Shortly after payment problems occurred at a financial institution called SB Bank, the Bank of Russia appointed an interim administration. Such a decision, adopted on February 16, was stimulated by the revocation of a license giving the right to conduct financial transactions. From the first days of the introduction of the interim administration, there have been serious opposition to its activities. According to the report, the management of SB Bank, who failed to solve the problems on their own, refused to transfer the originals of the loan agreements. It tried to prevent the interim administration from accessing pledge and surety agreements in the framework of loan debts of both legal entities and individuals. This was regarded as clear evidence of an attempt to withdraw assets from the bank.
Such behavior made it impossible not only to satisfy the claims of creditors, but also to obtain legal penalties. According to the results of evaluating the work of SB Bank financial institution, whose liquidity problems turned out to be more significant than anticipated, its assets were estimated at 8.9 billion rubles with a total liabilities to creditors of 48 billion rubles.
Violation of law
Before revoking the license, interesting actions by the management of SB Bank were identified. What is happening within the financial institution was able to figure out thanks to the formation of the register of obligations of the institution. When there were already problems with the solvency of the organization, the creditors' claims were transformed into a privileged order of their fulfillment. There was a crushing of deposits to such a size within which it would be possible to compensate for the loss by paying from a deposit insurance agency. The actions of the former management and the owners of the organization had a hint of criminally punishable activities. Information about them was sent by the Central Bank to the General Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of the Interior. One can attest to the fact that a license was legally revoked from a financial institution known as SB Bank.
Payments to victims
According to the official statement of the Deposit Insurance Agency, payments to former customers of SB Bank will be made in accordance with the regulations from March 1, 2015 to March 2 of the next year. Compensation will be available at Sberbank, VTB 24, and also as an agent bank at the Otkrytie Khanty-Mansiysk Bank.
After March 2, 2016, information on the specifics of payments will be presented in a separate order. Compensations are focused not only on compensation for damage to deposit holders, but also on clients who had settlement accounts in the institution. For all open accounts in aggregate, the amount of compensation will not exceed the amount of more than 1.4 million rubles. If there are counterclaims from the bank to the depositor, their amount will be deducted from the amount of compensation in accordance with the current regulations of the Deposit Insurance Agency.