Committee for banking supervision of the Russia’s central bank has withdrawn the operating licence of Mukhtar Ablyazov’s AMT-bank. Ablyazov is a Kazakh-native businessman who has recently fled Russia and hides in Britain. The decision to revoke the license makes the bank’s case the largest insured event since introduction of deposit insurance system in Russia. AMT-bank was the last bank that retained licence, despite having not cleared off liabilities for unsecured loans, the central bank allocated during the credit crunch to support the country’s banking system.

Since autumn 2009 the liabilities were restructured for a number of times. Although it did not help AMT-bank to survive, the central bank has cut down its losses. In November 2009 the liabilities of AMT-bank amounted to 11.9b roubles ($0.4b), whereas by 1 July 2011 the figure decreased to 7.4b ($0.26b).        

According to the Russian Mafia (rumafia.com), in autumn 2010 the central bank restricted the amount of individual deposits AMT-bank could accept to around 13b roubles ($0.46b). At the beginning the bank complied with requirements: in 2010 the amount of deposits was on level with previous years. But since January 2011 the number of individual deposits increased and by June 2011 the bank accepted 15.6b ($0.55b) as deposits. This might be the only reason for withdrawal of the banking licence – it appears that there were no other pretensions to the financial statement of the bank.

Formal criteria the central bank applies to other banks requires it to provide AMT-bank with financial support, since “financial rehabilitation” is considered sensible in case the bank has over 5b ($0.18b) in deposits. However, the bank took tough measures against AMT-bank, because it does not want to risk its reputation especially after the scandalous decision to recover the Bank of Moscow, analysts say.