Clients of Tatfondbank and Intechbank received summonses to the court. They are asked to return money to the rancid credit institutions. This is not about loans, but about the depositors' own funds. At the same time, the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) is ready to "forgive" the multi-million dollar debt to the partner of the bursting bank. It all looks as if the DIA protects unaffected customers, and the bankers and officials of the region, led by Rustam Minnikhanov, are playing.

The story of a large-scale "sweep" of the banking sector is gathering new details. The case with Tatfondbank (TFB) and its subsidiaries initially looked unique. Usually, the Central Bank withdraws a license from a troubled bank. Further, the court recognizes the organization as insolvent, and its owners and top managers flush out of the country. The withdrawn assets can not be returned, so the DIA has to give de facto government money to defrauded depositors. The second option - to restore the bank's balance through sanation, - as practice has shown, applies only to selected structures.

Investors experienced a shock

The events around Tatfondbank do not fit into any of these schemes: the organization went bankrupt, the key owner - the government of Tatarstan - has not escaped anywhere, but does not hurry with people. It seems that this situation is satisfied by the Deposit Insurance Agency, which decided to take money for investors ... from the investors themselves. DIA filed in the Arbitration Court of Tatarstan more than 500 lawsuits against customers of troubled institutions. Thus, the bankruptcy manager Tatfondbank (he represents the interests of the DIA) demands to return to the accounts the money that the clients withdrew or transferred in late November - early December 2016. Probably, the manager believes that people could use "insider" information and, knowing about the problems of the credit institution, they decided to save the savings.

Claims are addressed to both legal entities and individuals. In a number of cases there are also insignificant sums: people paid for utilities, repaid loans in other banks; someone has withdrawn money to make repairs in an apartment or repair a car, pay for the treatment of parents or study children. Now they will have to prove through court the right to dispose of their own money.

Having received summons, many investors experienced a shock. "Why is DIA engaged in us, and not looking for where billions disappeared?" - they leave such comments in social networks. Representatives of the agency assure that it is a formality, which can not be avoided in the bankruptcy of the bank. Everyone who is supposed to, they promise to return the money.

The problems in Tatfondbank became known at the end of 2016. On December 15, the Central Bank introduced a temporary administration in it, followed by the deactivation of ATMs and a moratorium on settlement and cash operations. The interim administration has established that the "hole" in the capital of the TFB is 96.7 billion rubles. As of early February 2017, highly liquid assets were valued at 8 billion rubles, and the amount of the bank's liabilities was 189.7 billion rubles. Simply put, assets have evaporated, and debts have remained. On March 3, 2017, the Central Bank withdrew a license from Tatfondbank. On April 11, the credit institution, which was part of the top 50 banks of Russia, was declared bankrupt.

"First we'll take it, then give it away, but not all"

In response to a request from Kazan journalists, the DIA reported that when filing suits, Art. 61.3 of the federal law "On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)". Banking operations will be challenged if they go beyond the normal course of business. Therefore, people who needed to withdraw money from their accounts to pay for repairs or treatment can prove this. Otherwise, they will have to return the money to the bankruptcy mass of the bank, but then the obligations of the TFB to them will be restored, and depositors will be able to expect compensation in the amount of 1.4 million rubles.

But this applies only to "physicists". Money entrepreneurs are not subject to the law on deposit insurance. Therefore, they see in the actions of the DIA an attempt to "repulse" the multimillion dollar losses of banks at the expense of small and medium-sized businesses. Well, what else should he do? The head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov immediately recognized that he can not plug a hole in the capital of the TFB independently. In the republic, a compensation fund has been created, which is filled at the expense of selling the land, but it is unlikely to satisfy all creditors' claims in this way.

The authorities of the region asked the Central Bank not to allow bankruptcy and start the reorganization of Tatfondbank, but were refused. The reasons for it are also understandable: the interim administration identified in the bank off-balance sheet deposits, the money from which could be attributed to large enterprises of Tatarstan. Return them back is not easy, and even "respected people" in the republic may be offended. It's easier to blame small businessmen for learning about the problems in the bank, they ran to collect money, which led to its collapse.

However, only a few could know about the impending catastrophe in Tatfondbank. To assess the financial position of the TSE, it was necessary to have access to a large number of indicators, including knowing the amount of funds on the correspondent account. No credit institution discloses this information to its depositors. Most of the clients of the TFB, including small and medium-sized businesses, learned about problems in the bank at the same time as the introduction of the interim administration.
In a number of cases, the requirement of the DIA will put the business on the brink of survival. If a company repays a loan from a bank account in another bank, then it will not be able to cancel the transaction. Funds in the competitive mass will have to be made from reserves, which are far from not all or insufficient.

Pick up a penny, "forgive" billions

Against the backdrop of all this creditors Tatfondbank struck another initiative of the bankruptcy trustee. In fact, he offered to "forgive" hundreds of millions of rubles to one of the largest debtors of the TFB, namely PJSC "Nizhny Novgorod Commercial Bank" Radiotechbank. " In the framework of the Tatfondbank bankruptcy case, the Arbitration Court of Tatarstan was to consider five applications of the bankruptcy trustee about challenging transactions between the TFB and Radiootechbank. On the eve of the introduction of the interim administration, the Kazan Bank assigned to the Nizhny Novgorod claim right on 11 loan agreements for a total of more than 410 million rubles. November 30, 2016 from the accounts of Radio Technical Bank in Tatfondbank were written off 35 million rubles and 50.7 million rubles, intended to repay the inter-bank loan. Two days earlier, the Nizhny Novgorod bank withdrew 60 million rubles from the Treasury. Approximately at the same time, 401 thousand euros were transferred to the account of PJSC "VTB Bank" from the currency account of Radio Technical Bank in the TSE.

In addition to this, the bankruptcy trustee was going to challenge the withdrawal of funds from the accounts in the TFB for the total amount of 94.4 million rubles, which were held between November 30 and December 12, 2016. That is, just before the introduction of the provisional administration, the Nizhny Novgorod bank withdrew more than 650 million rubles from Tatfondbank. However, decided to challenge these operations, the bankruptcy manager suddenly offered to conclude an amicable agreement with the debtor.

He explains this in the following way: Radiotechbank stated that the fulfillment of all these requirements threatens its stability. Simply put, it will burst if it returns the money. The appeal of the Nizhny Novgorod bankers to the bankruptcy manager of the TFB is supported by letters from the government of the region, which declares the high importance of this bank for the financial system and social life of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

In turn, the bankruptcy trustee of Tatfondbank is ready to conclude an amicable agreement with Radiootechbank provided that the latter will return the right of claim under the loan agreements for a total amount of 84.3 million rubles. From the requirements for the remaining amount of debts, the representative of DIA is ready to refuse. The proposal of the manager will be considered by the committee of creditors of Tatfondbank on February 2, 2018. Against the backdrop of lawsuits against natural persons - former depositors of the TFB, the situation looks piquant. Especially if one considers that one of the beneficiaries of Radiootechbank is still considered the former chairman of the board of Tatfondbank Robert Musin, who also previously was the finance minister of Tatarstan and a deputy of the Republican State Council.

On the day of preparation of this material, Mr. Musin pleaded guilty to fraud, abuse of authority and money laundering. But we can assume that the former minister was made a "switchman," and the final beneficiaries of the collapse of Tatfondbank and its "daughters" feel quite comfortable.