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Russian Central Bank revokes licenses of 2 commercial banks

MOSCOW, February 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's Central Bank has revoked the licenses of LINK-Bank and European Trust Bank. The banking operations licenses of these two commercial banks are revoked from 11 February, 2014, the regulator said on its website.

LINK Bank had failed to build reserves to hedge against possible losses on loans and had violated accounting procedures, the central bank said, noting LINK Bank had been involved in transactions to expatriate funds under foreign trade contracts and had disbursed more than 20 billion roubles of cash to legal entities in 2013.

Internal control regulations on combating money laundering and financing of terrorism did not meet Russian Central Bank requirements and the bank's executives had taken no action to remedy the situation, the ruling said.

Provisional administration has been appointed pending the selection of a bankruptcy manager at what had been 769th in Russian banking in asset terms and a member of the national deposit insurance system.

In a separate statement on European Trust Bank, rated by assets as 201st in Russian banking at January 1, 2014, the central bank noted non-compliance with federal banking laws, incorrect accounting reports and inability to meet creditors' demands.

The bank had carried out a risky loan policy, failing to build reserves against risk. Accounting reports had concealed failure to meet its obligations to depositors and creditors and loss of capital, the regulator added. European Trust Bank had been involved in suspicious cash and non-cash transactions valued at more than $7 billiion in the first nine months of 2013.