INTERVIEW: Ex-CEO: Owners of Jugra Bank have self-resolution plan

MOSCOW, Jul 21 (PRIME) -- Owners of troubled Jugra Bank, with a moratorium on creditors’ demands and a six-month interim administration introduced by the central bank on July 10, have developed a self-resolution plan envisaging a payment moratorium, ex-CEO Dmitry Shilyayev said in an interview with PRIME on Friday.

“We have developed a self-resolution plan. The shareholder has never asked for cash injections to normalize the situation, because the debt portfolio was serviced properly, interest was paid, and it allowed us to service the deposit portfolio as well,” he said.

The former executive said that the plan depends on stabilization of the bank’s liabilities, which have been hurt much since July 10.

He also said that the situation could be improved by imposing a moratorium on payments though “it is clear that in this case new clients will not come to the bank and old clients would like to withdraw their money”. He added that the bank’s shareholders “will stop at nothing to stabilize the situation,” and are ready to inject their own money.

Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina said the central bank will make a final decision on the future of Jugra Bank based on the results of work of the interim administration.

Shilyayev said that his bank has received five orders to raise reserves from the central bank this year and complied with all of them. The last such order was issued on July 6, several days prior to the introduction of an interim administration.

“The order was issued late in the evening, at 9.30 p.m. and it was due at 3.00 p.m. on the next day, July 7… and we fulfilled the requirement,” he said.

He also said that the reserves were added by the bank’s owners not to “save the bank”, but to “meet the regulator’s requirements.”

“We had had no client outflow before the interim administration was imposed. Our depositors could see that the bank carried out its obligations and they never thought of leaving Jugra Bank… We had both assets and liabilities balanced. Liquidity met standards.”

On Wednesday, the Prosecutor General’s Office appealed against introduction of an interim administration and a three-month moratorium on creditors’ demands at Jugra Bank imposed by the central bank on July 10. It said that the central bank has failed to take into account the absence of violations of mandatory standards during inspections.

Central Bank Deputy Chairman Vasily Pozdyshev said earlier the regulator believed that Jugra Bank had been providing misleading reports for several months and suspected the bank of asset withdrawal and manipulations with deposits.

On Thursday, the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) started repaying deposits of Jugra Bank via VTB 24, Sberbank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Otkritie Financial Corporation (FC) Bank, and Bank UralSib despite prosecutors’ protest.

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