CentroCredit

It was founded in 1989. General License of the Bank Russia No. 121. It functions and actively develops as a universal client bank with an investment focus, therefore, great attention is paid to the development of high-tech services, the expansion of the range of services provided, the creation of a modern infrastructure necessary for successful business. Issues and acquires bank cards of payment systems MasterCard Worldwide Visa and International using remote service technologies.

History

2023: Obtaining a foreign portfolio investor license in India

At the end of December 2023, Centrocredit and Tinkoff Bank received licenses of a foreign portfolio investor in India (Foreign Portfolio Investor, FPI), as a result of which ten licenses of eight Russian structures and citizens became in the register.

The fact that Russian credit organizations began to master the Indian market was reported on January 9, 2024 by the Kommersant newspaper. She notes that in the fall of 2023, Sberbank was the first of the banks to receive a license of the first category. Licenses are held by the management companies Alfa-Capital, First and Income.

According to the publication, there are three categories of FPI licenses in total in India. The first makes it possible to use "soft rules for disclosing beneficial property, receive tax breaks and subscribe to foreign derivatives based on Indian shares," the newspaper quoted Alexander Saraev, deputy director for rating activities at Expert RA.

Ivan Tikhonenok, head of banking practice at Amond & Smith Ltd, noted that the second category is designed for management companies, investment managers, banks, pension funds, and the third is introduced for hedge funds and private equity funds.

In October 2023, it became known that VTB applied to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an FPI license. As the first deputy chairman of the bank's board Dmitry Pyanov explained, Russian banks need to "dispose of rupees" due to trade imbalances - Russia exports more goods to India than it imports. According to him, "the issue of temporary investment of rupees is relevant for any agent serving this foreign trade."

Experts interviewed by the newspaper are confident that the number of Russian organizations and citizens receiving FPI licenses will continue to grow.^[1]

2020: S&P downgrades bank rating outlook to negative

At the end of March 2020, Centrocredit received a double blow - S&P lowered its forecast for the rating of Centrocredit Bank (Moscow) from stable to negative (B/B rating) and the bank is trying to fight back in the courts from the claims of the Customs Service for bank guarantees of alcohol companies for a billion rubles.

The S&P rating agency is cutting its forecast due to the collapse in the securities market. The bank's regulatory capital adequacy ratio has decreased since the beginning of the year from 28% to 18%. The agency warns of a deterioration in the bank's position in the event of long-term volatility in the Russian market, since sovereign bonds account for about 50% of the bank's assets, which are almost completely embedded in repo operations with the Central Bank.

2019: Payment to customs of more than 0.5 billion rubles under a bank guarantee issued for excise stamps for vodka

In May 2020, it became known that the City Arbitration Court Moscow ruled in favor of the Central Excise Customs in case No. A40-306308/2019. In the framework of this case, the plaintiff demanded from the bank "CentroCredit" over 26 million rubles. penalties.

The bank filed a counterclaim, according to which it tried to recover 571 million rubles from the Central Excise Customs. Losses.

Third parties that do not declare independent requirements in the case were the Federal Customs Service, the Federal Service for the Regulation of the Alcohol Market and Flian LLC.

In 2018, the Flian company applied to the Central Excise Customs for excise stamps for marking vodka. In accordance with the law, the company signed an obligation to apply stamps to products and import them into the country. Unused and damaged brands "Flian" pledged to return no later than August 2019. These liabilities amounted to RUB 571.9 million.

Bank guarantees for security were issued to CentroCredit, they were valid until the end of November 2019.

Within the established period, Flian did not return unused stamps, and in September 2019, the Central Excise Customs demanded that the bank pay the amount of security.

On November 29, CentroCredit fully fulfilled its obligations, and therefore customs partially abandoned the claims. But for the delay in payment, she calculated a penalty to the bank in the amount of 26.3 million rubles.

The defendant petitioned to reduce the penalty, but Judge Zalina Bitaeva rejected this request. She pointed out that the amount was calculated in accordance with the contract, and the bank did not prove that it was disproportionate to the consequences of late payment. At the same time, the court did not agree with the terms on which the customs calculated the amount of the penalty: the plaintiff did not take into account that under the terms of the bank guarantee, CentroCredit had five days to consider the customs requirements. Taking this into account, the ASGM recalculated and determined the amount of the penalty at 25.7 million rubles.

In a counterclaim, the bank indicated that even before receiving claims from customs, it had notified it that Flian's products were on sale. CentroCredit conducted an independent check and turned to law enforcement agencies. In November 2019, the Moscow police opened a criminal case on causing property harm by abuse of trust (paragraph "b" of part 2 of article 165 of the Criminal Code), according to which the bank passes to the victims. According to the plot of the case, unidentified persons entered into a bank guarantee agreement with CentroCredit on behalf of Flian, and then deliberately initiated the termination of contracts under which they received excise stamps, in order to then dispose of them at their discretion.

On this basis, the bank asked the Central Excise Customs to withdraw its demands, which it refused to do.

In a counterclaim, CentroCredit indicates that customs did not properly control Flion's use of excise stamps, and as a result, the bank was forced to actually pay for stamps that the manufacturer uses free of charge.

The Bank also believes that the customs established security in the amount of the maximum amount (218 rubles per bottle) without justification. According to CentroCredit, this amount significantly exceeds the possible losses from the illegal circulation of excise stamps. Thus, the Central Excise Customs received unjust enrichment at the expense of the bank.

Judge Zalina Bitaeva noted that at the time of the conclusion of the agreement, the bank had information on the number of excise stamps issued and the type of alcoholic beverages for which the security was calculated. In addition, the bank's remuneration is tied to the amount of the guarantee. The funds that the customs received on the basis of an agreement concluded with the knowledge and consent of the bank cannot be considered unjust enrichment, the court stressed. In addition, the judge noted that the bank guarantee is valid regardless of the main obligation.

Thus, the ASGM decided to recover 25.7 million rubles. penalties from CentroCredit Bank in favor of the Central Excise Customs. The court completely refused to satisfy the counterclaim.

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