Russia’s central bank revoked the license of a medium-size Moscow-based lender, notable for the presence on its board of a relative of President Vladimir Putin, for alleged false accounting and repeated violations of anti-money-laundering laws.
The closure of Master Bank is the highest-profile move to date by the central bank since its first female governor, Elvira Nabiullina, took the helm in July, and could herald a new push in Russia’s chronic struggle with money-laundering.
Igor Putin is still a member of Master Bank’s board, having previously served as a vice president for a brief period. A Kremlin spokesman said that he is a “distant relative” of the president but “they have nothing in common other than their name” and no business ties. The spokesman said the Kremlin had no role in the regulator’s decision, noting that Ms. Nabiullina had said from the start of her tenure that she would focus on banking regulation “and she is consistently following that policy.”
Ms. Nabiullina told the Duma, the lower house of parliament, the bank had a capital shortfall of at least 2 billion rubles ($61 million). “The bank concealed its real condition, submitting substantially false reports,” she said. “The bank was involved in servicing the shadow sector of the economy, illegal transactions and repeated violations of money-laundering laws. We were forced to take this as last-resort measure.”
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