The Bank of Russia has revoked as of February 3, 2016 a banking license held by Alta-Bank (Registration No. 2269), the regulator's press service reported.
The Bank of Russia decided to apply the last resort measure because the lending institution failed to fulfill federal laws regulating banking activities, and also the Bank of Russia's statutory acts, of its inability to meet monetary claims of creditors and taking into account the multiple application of the measures provided for in the Federal Law "On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)" during a year.
Due to the loss of liquidity Alta-Bank failed to timely fulfill its obligations to creditors. The bank's executives and owners took no measures to bring its activities back to normal. Under the circumstances, on the basis of Article 20 of the Federal Law "On Banks and Banking Activity" the Bank of Russia fulfilled the obligation to revoke the lending institution's banking license.
Alta-Bank is a member of the national deposit insurance system.
In late January 2016 Alta-Bank was cut off the Banking Electronic Speedy Payment (BESP) system.
Furthermore, the media reported that Moscow-based Alta-Bank, which faced a liquidity shortage in late December, is waiting for the arrival of a new investor.
The lending institution's management board chairman Armen Arutyunov told Banki.ru that the liquidity deficit arose at the end of 2015 after the bank's big clients withdrew cash from their accounts and also due to a related information attack at the lending institution. "This contributed to rumors and further cash withdrawals by other clients," the bank's chief executive said, adding the financial institution's management is in talks with potential investors over the sale of some assets at the beginning of 2016.
