Page 18 - bne_Tech_06_2019

Fintech & E-commerce
June 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
Moldova’s banking sector turning the corner
Moldova has long been a money-laundering black hole. Then in 2014 they had a shock when more than $1bn was stolen from the bank sector – equivalent to 15% of GDP.
Belatedly the government is now responding. Stakes in three of the country's biggest banks, which together account for about 80% of the sector’s assets, have been sold to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and private investors and the central bank has been given real teeth to enforce regulations.
bne IntelliNews editor-in-chief Ben Aris talks
to special advisor to the president and head
of strategic planning at Moldova-Agroindbank (MAIB) Corneliu Munteanu and asks if Moldova’s banking sector has turned the corner.
Corneliu Munteanu
special advisor to the president of Moldova, head of strategic planning at MAIB
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The delivery of Chinese goods would initially take two to three weeks, but will be cut to five to seven working days. In some regions the delivery would be paid.
In March Russian Post (Pochta Rossii) said it plans to expand the frequency and coverage of cargo flights to China, potentially increasing the turnover by 15-20%. Previous reports suggested that Russia's largest traditional retailer X5 Group is in direct talks with China Post on developing alternative delivery routes for goods from China.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba and its international AliExpress and the Chinese domestic electronic payment Tmall platforms are forming a strategic partnership with Mail.ru, its shareholder mobile operator MegaFon, and the sovereign Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Alibaba was
also reportedly in talks with VTB Bank, which is affiliated with Russian Post.
In the meantime, since 2016 Ulmart has been rattled by shareholder conflict between Dmitri Kostygin (31.6%), August Meyer (30%), and Mikhaik Vasinkevich (38.5%). In May 2019 shareholders said they are ready to solve the conflict.
In January 2018 Kostygin, under house arrest on the accusations of defrauding Russia's largest bank Sberbank in a loan deal, filed a bankruptcy lawsuit against his business partner Vasinkevich. Kostygin was put under house arrest in October 2017, and reportedly Meyer stepped in to allow Ulmart pay the creditors and suppliers.
Kostygin's lawyer Erlan Kasenov has disputed the charges and claimed that Sberbank was interested in taking over Ulmart in order to takeover Ulmart's storage facilities and delivery infrastructure, which would be of high interest to Yandex.Market, a joint venture of Sberbank and Russian online major Yandex.