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Eastern Europe
March 29, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
First new bank in four years granted licence in Russia
Bank 131 has become the first new bank reg- istered by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) in almost four years, after the regulator has waged a lengthy sector clean-up. Bank 131 will be an online based bank with no branches or ATMs.
The bank is founded by the head of the IT holding Fix Dmitry Eremeev, who also founded the cashback service ePN.biz. Eremeev will remain the owner of the bank with charter capital
of RUB340mn, while it will be helmed by ex- commercial manager of Yandex.Money online service Alexander Magomedov.
The new online bank aims to provide payment services to online companies, such as retailers, social networks and cashback services. It also plans to provide services to retail clients through electronic wallets and its own IT platform with
a range of financial products.”
Russia's VEB.RF development bank to grant €1.5bn to Gazprom's gas complex
Russiam development bank Vneshekonombank (VEB.RF) will grant €1.5bn for up to 15 years for the construction of the Amur gas processing com- plex (Amursky GPZ) of state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom, the bank said in a statement, as cited by Reuters on March 26.
This is less than 10% of the budget for the pro- ject of €18.9bn. About €5.2bn will be provided by Gazprom, while another €10.8bn are planned to be raised from a syndicate of Russian, Chinese, and European investors.
Amur is part of the Sila Sibiri (Power of Siberia) pipeline infrastructure, with planned throughput of 42bn cubic metres (cm) of gas annually and
the first line to be launched in 2021. Previously Gazprom planned to raise $14bn project financing for the complex.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, Gazprom will start filling the Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline that connects Russia to China from September
1. Gazprom and Chinese CNPC signed a contract worth $400bn to supply China with gas via the pipeline in 2014.
Gazprom plans to provide China with 38bn cm of gas per year over 30 years through the pipeline. The company will start supplies via the pipeline with 5bn cm, and the facility will reach its full capacity after several years.