ICANO-Bank (IKEA Group)

Icano Bank was founded in 2013 as a joint venture between Icano Group (Luxembourg) and Credit Europe Bank N.V. (Netherlands).

History

Putin allowed a Russian bank to buy out a bank associated with IKEA

The President Russia Vladimir Putin signed an order that allowed the sale of Icano Bank (served business IKEA in Russia). " Credit Europe Bank The corresponding document was published on the official Internet portal of legal information on January 26, 2023.

According to the order, the Russian joint-stock company Credit Europe Bank is allowed to complete a transaction to acquire 100 percent of the shares in the authorized capital of Ikano Bank LLC owned by Cyrus Holding Bi. Ви (CIRUS Holding B.V.)».

The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. According to Kommersant, the bank could have been sold for 0.2-0.3 capital. Icano Bank's assets amounted to almost 4 billion rubles, the newspaper notes.

The permission of the head of state was necessary due to the fact that Icano Bank is one of 45 Russian credit institutions owned by foreign companies, and their sale is possible only by agreement of the President of the Russian Federation. Previously, from this list, permission to sell was granted only to RN Bank.

Icano Bank previously specialized in providing retail banking services in Mega shopping centers and IKEA stores in Russia. In October 2022, the bank warned of the termination of MEGA Friends and IKEA Family cards. Their holders were offered.

The owner of Icano Bank was the Dutch Cirus Holding BV, which belonged in equal shares to the Ikano SA group (Luxembourg) and Credit Europe Bank NV (Netherlands). The Ikano group belongs to the Camprado family, descendants of the founder of the IKEA holding. Credit Europe Bank NV is owned by the Turkish group FIBA. IKEA decided to completely withdraw from Russia after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, suspending the operation of all stores from March 2022. [0001202301260010.pdf 'Order of the President of the Russian Federation]

2022: IKEA sells bank to Turkish Credit Europe Bank

In June 2022, it was announced that the IKEA group would sell Ikano-Bank to the Turkish Credit Europe Bank. The parties submitted documents for approval to the Bank of Russia and expect the transaction to close by the end of July.

2021: The emergence of a large number of complaints from customers in Russia

On November 1, 2021, it became known that customers threw Icano-Bank (owned by the furniture retailer IKEA) in Russia with complaints about weak automation and incompetent employees. In September-October alone, more than 10 complaints appeared on the Банки.ру website.

According to Kommersant, most often users write about a low level of automation, the inability to load documents or send a request through a mobile application, sudden debts, staff reporting incorrect information about the terms of service.

Customers pelted IKEA bank in Russia with complaints of weak automation and incompetent employees

Experts interviewed by the publication believe that the main reason for the problems lies in the bank's business model focused on working with IKEA customers. At the same time, online retailers that own their own banks most often work with customers with the help of large financial partners, and their own banks are used mainly for settlements.

According to Pavel Tulubyev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Pochta-Bank, the banking business in the Russian Federation has many restrictions and not very high margins, and the creation of a credit institution requires investments in technology, personnel , etc.

The publication provides data according to which, by November 1, 2021, Icano-Bank ranks 224th in terms of assets and is in 7th place in terms of loss in the system as a whole - 304  million rubles).

Icano Bank refers to the so-called captive credit institutions that are created by large companies to serve their interests. Such banks in 2021 created Wildberries, Ozon and Yandex. There are no complaints about these banks by the beginning of November 2021. However, unlike the IKEA project, they were purchased not so much to work with retail customers of chains as to implement calculations and product development, the newspaper explains.^[1]

Notes