MOSCOW, December 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Sberbank (savings bank) of Russia and VTB-24 (foreign trade bank) begin to pay insurance indemnities to Master Bank depositors on Wednesday. The procdure will continue until December 4, 2014.

In accordance with the Federal Law "On the Insurance of Deposits by Natural Persons at the Banks of the Russian Federation", each depositor will get 100% of resources deposited with the bank if their aggregate amount does not exceed 700,000 rubles.

About 144,500 Master Bank depositors may apply for insurance indemnity for a total of about 31.2 billion rubles ($937.5 million), according to the Deposits Insurance Agency.

Master Bank's license revoked

The license of the Master Bank was revoked on November 20, 2013, by an order issued by the Bank of Russia in view of the fact that the credit-lending organization, which was among the top 100 banks, had been involved in large-scale shady transactions. As of the license revocation date, the Master-Bank's obligations to its depositors amounted to over 47 billion rubles ($1.4 billion).

The CBR moved to recall the license citing Master Bank's large-scale suspicious operations and the failure to abide by the federal laws on banking and combating money laundering and terrorism. "The revocation of the license is pursuant to the CBR's policy to remove from the market of banking serves the loan institutions involved in illegal activates, violating banking legislation, distorting information about their financial position and creating a real threat to the depositors and creditors' interests," the regulator said in a press release November 20.

An interim administration has been appointed to Master Bank and the powers of its executive bodies have been suspended in accordance with federal legislation.