UPDATE: Cbank cuts Bank Solidarnost off rapid payment system–source

(Adds comments on hacker attack in last three paragraphs)

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (PRIME) -- The central bank has disconnected Samara-based Bank Solidarnost, Russia’s 129th largest bank by assets as of January 1, from the rapid payment system, a measure often preceding license revocation, a banking source told PRIME on Thursday.

In 2013, a lot of clients withdrew money from its accounts and the bank participated in the Deposit Insurance Agency’s plan for prevention of bankruptcy. Probusinessbank was chosen as a turnaround manager, but lost its license in 2015. Zarubezhenergoproekt and Kranbank became new investors in Solidarnost.

According Bank Solidarnost, households keep about 10 billion rubles on the bank’s deposits.

The bank said on its Web site that it was attacked by hackers in the early hours of the day, when “an information attack was committed against the bank’s computer network, whose aim was to destabilize work of the bank by knocking out of service its operating systems on servers and local computers,” Bank Solidarnost said.

“The database and the core of the automatized banking system remained undamaged. Clients’ personal data and their money are safe. Activities to restore the information banking system through its upgrade are well under way.”

A source close to the central bank confirmed problems with the bank’s internal systems, whose character resembled a hacker attack. In this case, however, “not everything is clear,” and one cannot say the bank was attacked before all circumstances become clear.

(59.0235 rubles – U.S. $1)

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