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Russia's Central Bank revokes licence of Smolensk-based Askold Bank.

MOSCOW, December 24. /ITAR-TASS/. The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has revoked the banking operations licence of the Smolensk-based lending institution OAO Bank Askold, the regulatory authority has said. It comes as a consequence of a prior decision to revoke the licence of OAO Smolensk Bank, as OAO Bank Askold was its subsidiary.

The licence of Bank Askold was revoked for breaching the federal banking laws, as well as regulatory acts of the Bank of Russia, because of the bank’s capital adequacy less than two percent, decrease of the capital base below the minimal level, set by the CBR on the date of the state registration of the lending institution. According to the CBR, Bank Askold did not create reserves for possible losses linked with depositing of monetary resources in the OAO Smolensk Bank whose licence was revoked by an order of the Bank of Russia of December 13, 2013. After fulfilling the requirements of the regulatory authority to form adequate reserves, Askold fully lost its capital base and from mid-December the lending institution actually stopped its operation.

In accordance with the CBR order, a temporary administration has been appointed in Askold Bank, pending the appointment of a bankruptcy manager of liquidator. The powers of the executive bodies of the lending institution are suspended, in accordance with federal laws.

OAO Bank Askold is a party to the deposit insurance system.

According to preliminary assessment of the RF Central bank, the amount of liability of the state corporation Deposit Insurance Agency will be some 1.5 billion roubles.

By the size of its assets, Bank Askold was 514th in the Russian banking system as of December 1, 2013.

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