UPDATE: Russian antitrust sends unfair competition warning to Alfa Capital

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MOSCOW, Aug 21 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service has warned of unfair competition Alfa Capital, part of the Alfa-Bank Group, saying that it sees information in a letter covering problems in four country’s key banks untrustworthy, the authority said in a statement on Monday.

“An analysis completed by the authority showed that the information about problems at Otkritie Financial Corporation (FC) Bank, B&N Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow and Promsvyazbank are inconsistent with the reality because are not corroborated by official information,” the authority said.

Dissemination of such information can hurt business reputation of the banks and affiliated financial organizations and can incur losses on the banking and trust management services markets. Alfa Capital provides trust management services, which is why its activities met the unfair competition criteria, the watchdog said.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service ordered Alfa Capital to stop disseminating letters containing information about problems in the four banks and to send a refutation.

An Alfa Capital spokesperson said that the company had withdrawn the letters sent last week by analyst Sergei Gavrilov.

“The letters sent earlier by company employee Sergei Gavrilov were withdrawn on Friday. This way the earlier statements by the employee have been fully disavowed. The information about this has been promptly sent to the Federal Antimonopoly Service,” the statement read.

The contents of the newsletter of the analyst are his private opinion, the spokesperson said.

The company will send an answer to an earlier request by the antitrust timely, on Monday, the person also said.

Last week, Alfa Capital warned its clients about problems at Otkritie Financial Corporation (FC) Bank, B&N Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow and Promsvyazbank. The antimonopoly service sent a request to Alfa Capital in order to decide whether the actions by the company violated the antitrust legislation.

On August 18, the central bank sent a claim to the service and Deputy Director of the antitrust Andrei Kashevarov said that it will issue a warning until Tuesday.

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