The board of directors of the Bank of Moscow has voted off its member, Mr Mikhail Kuzovlev. Inside sources claim that Mr Kuzovlev’s dismissal has been prompted by a gross violation of company’s ethics code. Mr Kuzovlev was believed to head the bank after its president Mr Andrew Borodin resigned from office.

The Bank of Moscow, among top-5 credit institutions of Russia, was in the centre of the conflict of shareholders after the change of the bank’s core owner. At the beginning of 2011 Moscow authorities sold 46.48 % of shares to VTB along with a blocking stake in the Capital insurance group that owns 17.32 % of shares of the Bank of Moscow.  Mr Andrey Kostin, head of VTB, became chairman of the board of directors of Bank of Moscow.

VTB has already announced its intention to consolidate 100% stake of the Bank of Moscow. However, the bank’s top executives who own the largest minority equity stakes opposed the merger of the two banks. In March Mr Borodin offered VTB to sell him Bank of Moscow shares bought from Moscow authorities.

Earlier Russian Audit Chamber publicized the results of examination of the financial statements of the Bank of Moscow. 

The Chamber is concerned about the quality of the bank’s loan portfolio and is planning to send its questions to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation. Two major shareholders, VTB and Mr Borodin, are recommended to conduct an urgent audit of the loan portfolio and suspend the bank's executives who were involved in questionable loan transactions made ​​before VTB became one of the shareholders.