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Weekly Lists
May 17, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
bne:Banker Alpha Bank issues
Romania’s first covered bonds
Ukraine's central bank launches stress tests of 29 banks
Alpha Bank Romania announced that it has completed its first covered (mortgage) bond issue worth €200mn with a maturity of five years, a first for the banking market in Romania.
With these bonds, Alpha Bank Romania is refinancing a bundle of retail mortgage loans. The bank plans to list the bonds on both the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The bank plans to issue €1bn of such debt instruments.
"Alpha Bank Romania opens a new chapter on the local banking market with this new financing instrument, demonstrating once again its pioneering capabilities, almost 18 years after the first housing loan was launched,” said Sergiu Oprescu, executive chairman of Alpha Bank Romania.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has started stress testing the country’s 29 largest banks as part of the second stage of the resil- ience assessment of the nation's banks, according to May's banking sector review published by the central bank on May 11.
The regulator has been also started the asset quality review (AQR) confirmed by an external auditor. "According to preliminary es- timates, the number of banks requiring capital injections in the baseline and negative stress test scenario will decrease compared to the previous year," the document reads.
The country's banks need to form a capital conservation buffer in the amount of 0.625% by late 2019. It will become mandatory for each bank from the beginning of 2020.
Montenegro’s police have arrested two managers of bankrupt Atlas Banka – director Marko Nikolic and deputy director Dijana Zecevic – who were accused of embezzlement, broadcaster RTCG reported, quoting unnamed sources.
Atlas Banka and Invest Banka Montenegro (IBM), owned by contro- versial businessman Dusko Knezevic, were put under temporary administration by the central bank as its audit showed that the capital of the two lenders did not comply with the minimum risk requirements. Subsequently they went bankrupt.
Knezevic is the subject of an international arrest warrant after Montenegro’s special prosecution accused him of heading a criminal group that organised and executed the laundering
of €500mn through Atlas Banka.
Montenegro arrests two Atlas Banka managers on suspicion of embezzlement