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Weekly Lists
July 7, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 29
bne:Banker
Latvia’s Rietumu Bank handed hefty fine for French tax scam role
Rietumu Bank, one of Latvia's largest lenders, has been fined €80mn by a Paris court for its role in a tax evasion scheme run by a French company, French financial media reported on July 6.
The court slapped Rietumu with the fine for the bank’s complicity in a scam run by French financier Nadav Bensoussan and his com- pany French Offshore that helped French taxpayers and companies to evade tax.
The scam, originally thought to have removed €100mn from the reach of the French tax authorities, is now believed to account for at least €200mn and possibly up to €850mn, French financial website cBanque reported.
Bensoussan was sentenced to five years in prison, with three years suspended, while the Rietumu chairman Alexander Pankov was given a four-year suspended sentence.
Kazakhstan's second largest lender Halyk Bank finalised the pur- chase of 96.81% in biggest Kazakh bank Kazkommertsbank for the nominal sum of KZT2 ($0.006) on July 5.
The full takeover of KKB by Halyk Bank is in line with a provisional agreement signed in March. The Kazakh government sees the takeover as the best way to solve KKB’s problems with bad loans, which stem largely from its takeover of failed bank BTA in 2015. The difficulties were aggravated by the country’s recession.
Critics have expressed concern about the deal, pointing out that more than one-third of the Kazakh banking sector will now be controlled by one bank, the owners of which are presidential fam- ily members. The combined assets of Halyk and KKB amount to $27bn, outdoing the country's third largest bank Tsesnabank four- fold, and the local unit of Russia's Sberbank, ranked fourth, sixfold.
Two regional players - Hungary’s OTP and Romania’s Banca Tran- silvania - are reportedly the only serious contenders for the Roma- nian subsidiary of the National Bank of Greece.
The Greek lender is understood to be asking for €100mn for Banca Romaneasca. OTP has been actively looking for acquisition targets since the economic crisis. It wants to extend its reach in Central and Eastern European markets where its subsidiaries are located. Meanwhile, Transilvania recently became the second largest bank in Romania after taking over Volksbank Romania.
Kazakhstan's Halyk completes takeover of largest lender KKB
Two horse race for Romania's Banca Romaneasca