PRESS: Cbank restarts talks on bailout of Russia’s Tatfondbank

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (PRIME) -- The central bank has restarted talks on bailout of Tatfondbank, Russia’s 42nd largest by assets, with large banks and may provide about 120 billion rubles for the procedure, Vedomosti business daily reported on Monday quoting a person close to the central bank and a top manager of a bank in Tatarstan, where Tatfondbank is located.

On December 13, Vedomosti reported that Tatfondbank could be merged with AK BARS Bank controlled by the republic of Tatarstan as part of the bank’s financial bailout plan. But AK BARS Bank denied the information. The government of the republic of Tatarstan said it will support Tatfondbank as much as possible, but the bank will not be merged with AK BARS Bank.

On December 15, the central bank appointed the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) as the interim administration at Tatfondbank for six months. The regulator also introduced a three-month moratorium on fulfillment of Tatfondbank’s liabilities.

The regulator’s decision triggered a crisis in Tatarstan because Tatfonbank was connected to Bank Sovetsky, Timer Bank, Tatargoprombank, and Raiotekhbank. Tatfondbank was also a sponsor in international payment systems Visa and Mastercard for Altynbank, Intechbank, and Tatagroprombank, the business daily said.

This is the second attempt of the central bank to find a bailout manager for Tatfondbank. The first one was done in early December when the authority held talks with the government of Tatarstan and banking groups VTB and Otkritie. VTB 24 thought about a bailout of the bank, while VTB studied a purchase of good assets from Tatfondbank and Otkritie refused to participate, Vedomosti reported.

Two sources close to the regulator told the business daily that this time Alfa-Bank is among the candidates.

The central bank also insisted on participation of the Tatarstan’s government in the bailout.

Last week Tatarstan-controlled oil company Tatneft sold 25% in petrochemical company Nizhnekamskneftekhim to investment and industrial group of companies TAIF for 32 billion rubles. A banker close to one of the companies told Vedomosti that part of the money will be spent on support of local banks, but a local official said that the money may be used to support AK BARS Bank.

(60.8528 rubles – U.S. $1)

End