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Weekly Lists
July 5, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
bne:Banker Russian-born UK
banker sells stake in Latvian boutique bank linked to regulatory controversies
Russia's CBR sues founder of bailed Oktritie for $4.6bn
Grigory Guselnikov, a Russian banker with a UK passport, has sold his majority stake in Latvian PNB bank, the bank said on June 28.
The bank’s announcement came a day after Guselnikov tweeted about the move. PNB, earlier named Norvik, was at the centre of the contro- versy that embroiled Latvia’s central bank governor Ilmars Rimsevics in early 2018 and which has continued to haunt Latvia since.
The scandal began when Guselnikov reportedly claimed Rimsevics attempted to extort money from him in return for making “success- ful banking” possible in Latvia.
That spurred Riga’s anti-corruption police to start an investigation, which is still ongoing and was recently expanded with charges of money laundering against Rimsevics.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) completed the restructuring of the Financial Corporation Otkritie and sued the founder of the bank Vadim Belyaev for the RUB290bn ($4.6bn) the regulator had to invested in bailing out of the bank, Vedomosti daily reported on July 3 citing the regulator.
Otkritie was one of the so-called Garden Ring banks that got
into trouble in September 2017 and were eventually taken over
by the CBR. It was one of the largest of those private banks that went down in the mini-crisis and the first bank to be restructured through the CBR’s Fund of Consolidation of the Banking Sector (FKBS) that was set up earlier last year.
The Albanian central bank said on July 3 it has given approval
to Union Bank to acquire 100% of smaller local International Commercial Bank (ICBank). The purchase agreement was signed on December 24, 2018.
With the acquisition, Union Bank is expected to consolidate its market position. It is already the eighth largest bank in the country in terms of assets, and has over 30 branches in the country.
“After the completion of the merger by acquisition, Union Bank will fully own the International Commercial Bank,” the central bank said in the statement.
Malaysian-owned International Commercial Bank ranks 14th in terms of assets and has only six branches in Albania.
Albanian central bank approves merger of Union Bank and ICBank