RIA NOVOSTI. The cancellation of the banking license held by International Industrial Bank, which is owned by companies affiliated with Federation Council member Sergei Pugachov, bears no systemic risks for the national banking sector, first deputy CBR chairman Gennady Melikyan said. Some time ago International Industrial Bank was a Top 30 lender in Russia.
“It’s hard to call International Industrial Bank a bank in the classical meaning of the word. It looks like a treasury office of the specific financial and industrial group. And, to a certain extent, this is an investment company of some kind. The group of the bank itself consists of tens of businesses that participate in numerous cash movement schemes. In reality, the bank focuses on the group only, operations outside its walls are modest, especially when it comes to active operations. Therefore, its collapse bears no systemic risks for the country’s banking sector," Melikyan said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
At the same time, the lender raised substantial amounts from the outside, he added. “And the bank’s bankruptcy could result in losses at a number of companies, both large and medium-sized, that held funds with the bank," the agency’s interviewee said.
