Odesa-based Misto Bank has been declared bankrupt.
The National Bank of Ukraine announced on Dec. 14 that Misto Bank’s capital ratio has fallen at least 50% below the acceptable minimum, which means that the bank has gone bust.
Earlier this year, the bank lost control of one of its principal assets — a soybean processing plant in Kherson Oblast worth Hr 271 million ($9.5 million), almost 17% of the bank’s total assets. The NBU said this is the main reason for Misto Bank’s insolvency.
Misto Bank, owned by former member of parliament Ivan Fursin, declined to comment.
According to the NBU, 2,282 people representing 78% of the bank’s depositors, each had less than Hr 200,000 (about $7,000) in the bank and will get their money back in full. The rest will receive as much as the Deposit Guarantee Fund will be able to recover from liquidation of the bank’s assets.
The NBU estimates the total payout to depositors at about Hr 308 million, 60% of the total amount.
“Despite the situation with Misto Bank, our banking sector is in the best state of its entire history,” said NBU governor Kyrylo Shevchenko.
In August, the NBU refinanced Misto Bank with Hr 28.6 million (over $1 million) to support its liquidity. In July, Misto Bank reported that it improved its capital ratio and was compliant with liquidity regulations.
Yet in October, news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported that Misto Bank exceeded the NBU’s maximum acceptable counterparty credit risk.
Various media outlets reported throughout the year that the NBU wanted to declare the bank insolvent and met to discuss it in June, after which it was placed on a list of problem banks. Local media Delo.ua and UBR cited sources in the banking sector who said that Misto Bank racked up many violations.
The soybean plant that Misto Bank had lost had long been fought over by Ukrainian businessmen. The brothers Vadym and Ilya Segal had sued Dmytro Firtash in New York in 2013, accusing him of seizing the plant.
Misto Bank lost the plant in June after its state mortgage registration was “unreasonably canceled,” according to a legal motion the bank filed in the Pechersk District Court in Kyiv.
Fursin owns 97% of the bank. Fursin served in parliament as a member of the Party of Regions, led by ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, from 2012-2014, and then again from 2014-2019. His career is closely linked with exiled billionaire oligarch Dmytro Firtash, wanted by the United States on bribery charges that he denied. Fursin was a part-owner with Firtash of RosUkrEnergo, which during President Viktor Yushchenko and Yanukovych’s time had the monopoly on Russian natural gas imports into Ukraine. He is also close to member of parliament Serhii Lyovochkin and his sister, lawmaker Yulia. He is also an ally of Yanukovych era Minister of Energy Yury Boyko. His 2019 public declaration lists more than $2.5 million in cash.
