Natalya Kasperskaya did not become a banker

The Central Bank revoked the license from its Neklis Bank.
13.01.2020
Vedomosti
Origin source
The owner of the InfoWatch group of companies and the collapsed Neklis Bank, Natalya Kasperskaya, will leave the board of directors of Otkritie Bank, she told Vedomosti.

“In connection with the revocation of the license from the bank where I am the beneficiary, I am not comfortable being a member of the board of directors of Otkrytie, so I filed an application to suspend my membership in it,” Kasperskaya said. At the time of publication of the material, she was listed as a member of the board of directors on the Discovery website.

On Friday, January 10, the Central Bank revoked the license from Neklis Bank, 64% of which was owned by Kaspersky through the company Organized Financial Limited.

Kasperskaya became a member of the supervisory board of Otkrytie Central Bank in the summer of 2018. Supervisory boards of banks cannot include persons who had the ability to influence the bank whose license was revoked, the banking law says. The bank, whose supervisory board includes such a person, is obliged to notify the Central Bank about this within two business days and to dismiss such a person from office within a month.

The Bank of Russia, within its competence, does not comment on information regarding the business reputation of officials and other persons of financial institutions, its representative said. But he noted that Otkritie Bank on December 26, 2019 disclosed information about the holding of an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on February 28, 2020, which will address issues on the early termination of powers of the current supervisory board and the election of its new composition.

Otkrytie received a statement from Natalya Kasperskaya, an official decision will be made at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, a bank representative said.

Why did Kaspersky Bank lose its license

The Central Bank revoked the license from Neklis-bank due to the fact that it completely lost its capital due to the “formation of reserves for a number of assets” and conducted operations with signs of asset withdrawal, the regulator said. Also on the balance sheet of Neklis Bank was a portfolio of potentially bad loans to individuals totaling more than 1.3 billion rubles. In addition, Neklis Bank violated laws governing banking activities and regulations of the Central Bank. The regulator sent information about the bank’s operations with signs of crime to law enforcement. According to a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the materials of the Central Bank came to this department for further investigation. Vedomosti sent a request to the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Kaspersky in February 2018 told Vedomosti that she became the owner of the Neklis Bank "not at will." She had to convert subordinated deposits into shares of the bank - "otherwise it is not a fact that the bank could return the money." In 2016, the meeting of the Neklis Bank participants approved an increase in its authorized capital by 320 million rubles. due to the part of the subordinated deposit held by the Organizational Financial Limited, it was stated in the bank's statements (the shares in the authorized capital for that amount now belong to the Organat). It took a year to get CB approval, Kaspersky said. “The bank is a big headache, and I would like to engage in my core business, that is, information security. The Central Bank’s verification is now being completed at the bank, after which I would like to consider the possibility of a sale, ”she said in February 2018, waiting for instructions on the formation of reserves following the verification of the Central Bank.

Therefore, Kaspersky, in response to a request from Vedomosti, called the license revocation expected: the bank’s problems were too great and had a long history. “After two years of trying to deal with accumulated problems, I realized why the Central Bank is so ruthlessly“ mowing ”small banks. As a result, I prepared and sent a report to the management of the regulator, in which I asked for help in sorting out the situation in the credit institution, ”says Kaspersky. She considers herself affected, as well as other bank depositors. As of December 1, the bank had 1.9 billion rubles. funds of individuals.

“My personal funds were in the bank accounts,” says Kasperskaya. - We are talking about a deposit that the bank could not return to me, and the funds that I sent for additional capitalization in 2018 (in August 2018, the bank’s capital increased by 171 million rubles. - “Vedomosti”). Just a few hundred million rubles. " She added that she welcomes the decision of the Central Bank to apply to law enforcement agencies.

Sergei Boriskin, who headed the bank since 1999, refused to discuss the situation at the bank, saying that he was not comfortable talking, and hung up.

The capital of Neklis Bank as of December 1 was a little more than 1 billion rubles. (necessary minimum to obtain the status of a universal bank), the bank ranked 251st in terms of assets.

What about other Kaspersky affairs

The main asset of Kaspersky is the developer of InfoWatch information protection tools. In 2018, InfoWatch group had to sell the German “daughter” EgoSecure, Kaspersky called the cause “media attacks”. In 2015–2016 The German media (Berliner Morgenpost, Die Welt), talking about the German police using EgoSecure products, indicated that the owners of EgoSecure (InfoWatch and Natalya Kasperskaya) were allegedly known for their links with the Russian authorities (the Kremlin and the FSB). Kasperskaya denied that she had connections with the FSB. After leaving Germany, Kaspersky promised to concentrate on the markets of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where InfoWatch solutions have also been presented for more than five years.

Also in 2018, JSC “Infovotch” (one of the main legal entities of the group) placed bonds on the Moscow Exchange for 400 million rubles. and registered a bond program worth 5 billion rubles. for up to 15 years. Kasperskaya explained the attraction of money by the need to maintain the company's liquidity in the “low season” and replace its short-term financing. By 15.20 Moscow time, bonds fell 2.23% to 98.5 rubles, the turnover amounted to 33 million rubles. The price of them for the first time fell below the face value of 100 rubles.

Kaspersky assured that the revocation of the license from Neklis Bank will not affect the activities of InfoWatch, which is an independent business with its own sources of income in the information security market. The group of companies has accounts in many banks, operations are uninterrupted. In the details of the group, the account at Neklis Bank is indicated as settlement. Kaspersky emphasized that InfoWatch turnover is not going through Neklis-bank. The company also has accounts with Sberbank and VTB, as indicated in its documents.

Kaspersky leads the working group on information security of the national project Digital Economy and discusses government support for the industry with the government. For example, in December 2019, Kaspersky promised to meet with the profile Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov to ask him to increase support for Russian development companies from 5 billion to 39 billion rubles. In June 2019, Kasperskaya asked about the promotion of Russian IT companies in the face of possible sanctions and trade wars to President Vladimir Putin on his direct line. A year ago, Kaspersky participated in Putin's annual meeting with entrepreneurs, at the end of 2019, she was not at a similar meeting.

Business

Previous Article
Next article