Platinum Bank was considered one of the leading banks in Ukraine for several years, but since 2014 the situation began to change, and in 2016 it reached its peak. At the beginning of January 2017, the financial institution was classified as insolvent, although in 2012 it was one of the ten most reliable and top 30 leading banks in the country. The situation with deposits is quite uncertain, since the final fate of the bank and its future policy are still unknown.

Status of Platinum Bank in the financial market at the beginning of 2017

At the beginning of January 2017, the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine reported that back in June 2016, the optimal amount of additional capitalization for Platinum Bank was approved, and the financial institution had already submitted a report on the implementation of the restructuring plan. But to date, the bank has not been able to achieve a positive capital value and on January 11, 2017 it was declared insolvent. Management promises to pay deposits to most clients, but only in the amount of guaranteed deposits (the amount is determined by the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals, which also insures). For a smoother withdrawal of the financial institution from the market, a temporary administration will manage the bank until February 10. It is often possible to work in this format only if additional investments are attracted. Often this can only be done if you take out a bank loan. When choosing a financial partner, it is important to carefully evaluate its potential and customer reviews.

Many branches of Platinum Bank in Crimea and some southern regions of Ukraine are closed. Those who repay loans to the organization (most of them have already been sold to other banks, including Russian ones) and do not live in Ukraine should consult a competent lawyer and do not rush into payments, since the issue of debt repayment for this category of clients has not yet been resolved at the legislative level.

Advice: if the loan was purchased by a Russian bank, there is no need to rush into payments. In order not to overpay and insure yourself against fraud, it is better to wait for the bank to file a lawsuit and then demand a reduction in the amount of the penalty, guided by Art. 333 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Deposits and interest rates at Platinum Bank

From January 19, 2017, the operational activities of Platinum Bank were restored. But only a few operations can be carried out in branches: repaying a loan, overdraft by depositing cash, submitting documents on expense transactions of individuals and legal entities (but only within the limits of the amounts that were transferred to accounts during the period of the temporary administration - from January 12). You won't be able to get it from this organization.

At the moment, Platinum Bank is still operating, and the official website contains the following information about the possibility of making a deposit in dollars: “Cash every month” (8.5-9.5% depending on the term, and for deposits with the possibility of early repayment - 6.5-8%).

Since it is unknown whether this organization will continue its financial activities, economic experts cannot say anything definite about Platinum Bank’s interest rates in 2017. In 2016 they were abnormally high - 22-24% with an average of 16.9%. On January 5, 2017, the organization approved the following conditions for servicing deposit programs of individuals, for which the registration of new deposits is suspended:

• String (6.5-8% for dollar currency, 5.5-7% for euro depending on the period, but from November 20, 2015, new deposits are not issued, and the storage period of deposits issued before this date can be extended);
• Currency exchange (8% with a minimum deposit amount of 50 USD, but from 12/01/2016 it will not be possible to open a new deposit);
• Dynamic (5%, 3%, can only be issued in hryvnia currency).

At the moment the following deposits are still valid:

1. Acquaintance (period – up to 14 days, 6% for dollar currency).
2. Desired increase (from 3 to 18 months at 7.5-9.5% for $ and at 6.5-8% for €).
3. Foreign currency certificate of deposit (6-12 months at 8.5-10% for foreign currency).
4. Free money (3-18 months at 3-8.8% in foreign currency).

Residents of Crimea will be able to receive reimbursement of their deposits at any branch of the agent bank. To make one, it is worth considering such types of deposits as Ordinary Miracle, Lucky Coin (with interest rates of 9.5 and 9.8%, respectively). The deposits Fulfillment of Wishes+ (at 8.3%), Pension (6%), Active Account (5.8%) are also convenient and reliable. Their safety is guaranteed by the Deposit Insurance System. With the income from deposits, it is possible to develop development: engage in agriculture, produce designer cosmetics, souvenirs, and organize tourist tours.

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To remain a successful bank among a huge number of professionals, it is necessary to be not only a better, but also a more prudent, far-sighted organization. Each company chooses individual guidelines for itself, adapting foreign and domestic developments in strategic management. But due to current errors and shortcomings, this does not always bring success, as in the case of Platinum Bank. At the moment, opening a deposit, even at a favorable interest rate, in this institution is dangerous, and in the case of some programs from the bank it is impossible due to its withdrawal from the market in 2017. The return of deposits to clients will be carried out by the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals.

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Platinum Bank was withdrawn from the market due to a capital shortage. Now the Deposit Guarantee Fund must pay20 3 thousand clients have deposits and high interest rates on them for almost 5 billion UAH. If the NBU had withdrawn Platinum from the market when the first signs of problems appeared, the payments would have been less (Ukrainian).

After the New Year's weekend, the National Bank “congratulated” the market on the first bank bankruptcy in 2017, which will become the most costly for the state (not counting the rescue of PrivatBank) after the bankruptcy of the Finance and Credit bank in September 2015, when the state had to pay depositors about 10, 5 billion UAH.

The bankruptcy of Platinum Bank increased the burden on the Deposit Guarantee Fund by at least UAH 4.8 billion. This is exactly the amount of guaranteed deposits (up to 200 thousand UAH) that will be received by 197 thousand bank clients with deposits below this limit, as well as 6 thousand wealthy depositors whose payments will not exceed this level. The National Bank reported this today. The Deposit Guaranty Fund, however, reported UAH 4.9 billion. By the way, this is the first bank in which deposits of individual SPD individuals are also covered under payment guarantees. The Fund has this money in its accounts. At the end of December, the Fund received government bonds from the Ministry of Finance for approximately UAH 8 billion.

Yesterday the regulator declared Platinum Bank insolvent, and today a temporary administration entered the institution and disabled Internet banking. “We are currently updating the system. Technical work is underway - we are making Pt Click even faster and more convenient!” – the bank lied on its website.

The financial condition of the bank has raised questions for several years, but the NBU was in no hurry to withdraw the institution from the market. Thanks to aggressive marketing and high interest rates on deposits, the bank managed to “vacuum clean” the population’s deposits until the day of its death. At a time when the average market yield on hryvnia deposits was 18%, Platinum Bank paid clients about 24-27%, arguing that it was actively working in the field of consumer lending. At the end of the year, he organized another promotion, promising investors a win of 10 thousand UAH.

The bank’s reporting for the fourth quarter is not yet available, but in the first nine months of 2016, deposits of individuals increased by more than UAH 1 billion – up to UAH 6 billion. During this period, the population's hryvnia savings increased by UAH 1.2 billion, while bank clients withdrew foreign currency deposits - they decreased by $12.6 million, to $58.9 million (-18%).

Long road to bankruptcy

The money received from the population was used, among other things, to return the deposits of legal entities. Over three quarters, the debt to them decreased from UAH 1.1 billion to UAH 0.7 billion. But not everyone was lucky. Back in 2015, Platinum Bank did not pay its client, the mobile operator MTS Ukraine, and did not return its deposit in the amount of UAH 250 million. The bank asked the court for a delay in the return of this money, indicating that their one-time payment would lead to its insolvency. The court granted a reprieve, but even when it expired, the bank never returned the funds to the client. The court also refused to invalidate the bank owner’s request to invalidate these deposit agreements. MTS Ukraine will be able to count on receiving this money only after the sale of the bank’s property.

Even the National Bank was drawn into this trial: the mobile operator asked the court to oblige the NBU to recognize Platinum Bank as problematic. But take on the powers of the central bank.

The regulator continued to get caught up in scandals surrounding the bank. In the fall, telephone conversations between the deputy head of the NBU, Katerina Rozhkova (in 2014-2015, she headed Platinum Bank, but denied the presence of a conflict of interest) with representatives of the institution about its operations, were published on the Internet, but this did not speed up the NBU’s decision to declare Platinum bankrupt. The regulator explained its position by the fact that they had not received any complaints from depositors who were unable to return their savings. The SBU promised to conduct an examination of telephone conversations. At the same time, Platinum Bank regularly reduced its debt under the NBU stabilization loan.

The bank also figured in the story surrounding Mikhailovsky Bank, but the bank denied any involvement. Although the financial company Fagor had accounts with Platinum Bank. In addition, the ex-head of Mikhailovsky Bank, Igor Doroshenko, worked at Platinum Bank in May-June 2016, but under pressure from the NBU, he announced his resignation from the institution. Law enforcement officers were also interested in financial transactions in the bank for 2013-2014.

Capital hole

Even now, the reason for Platinum's insolvency was not a problem with making payments, but a lack of capital. “During 2016, the management and owners of the bank’s significant participation took measures to fulfill the requirements for additional capitalization, in particular, by repaying loans from borrowers - related parties, providing irrevocable financial assistance from the shareholder, and increasing the volume of collateral for loans,” the NBU said.

But the capitalization indicator still worsened. At the end of the third quarter, Platinum’s regulatory capital fell to a negative value of minus UAH 157 million, and the loss reached UAH 333 million. Two other institutions with negative capital - Artem Bank and Trust Bank - went bankrupt by the end of the year, but Platinum Bank in official communications claimed that everything was fine: on December 21, it reported that in 2016 it was capitalized by UAH 203 million, and 29 December announced additional capitalization of another 120 million UAH.

Today, the NBU reported that the regulatory capital of Platinum Bank did not become positive by January 1, 2017, and the bank did not complete the recapitalization program. “The bank’s capital increased by UAH 120 million due to financial assistance. But this was not enough to bring it to an adequate level,” the press service of the National Bank told FinClub.

It is still unknown whether the NBU will file claims against the owners of Platinum Bank for bringing them to bankruptcy. But he names the owners of the institution who did not recapitalize it. “As of January 10, the individuals who own a significant stake in Platinum Bank are Boris Kaufman and Grigory Gurtovoy, regardless of formal ownership, taking into account the exercise of significant influence on the management and activities of the bank. The NBU recognized Boris Kaufman and Grigory Gurtovoy as owners of significant participation based on an analysis of the bank’s operations. In addition, Boris Kaufman confirmed the exercise of significant influence on the management of banks in a written statement submitted to the NBU,” the NBU stated.

Market participants have called Boris Kaufman the real owner of Platinum since 2013, when the investment funds of Horizon Capital and East Capital sold the bank. But it was only this summer that Boris Kaufman recognized his interest in the institution. “I have been cooperating with Platinum Bank for a long time in various areas of business. Therefore, I am ready to concentrate a controlling stake and take part in an additional issue of the bank for UAH 120 million,” Boris Kaufman said in the summer.

But he never became the owner of the bank. In June 2016, the ownership structure of Platinum Bank was recognized as opaque, because the formal controller of the bank, Grigory Gurtovoy, was under investigation in Israel. Already in August, Boris Kaufman submitted a package of documents to the NBU for the purchase of over 75% of the bank’s shares through companies controlled by him, but the NBU did not approve the purchase “due to the failure to submit a number of documents, in particular, permission from the Antimonopoly Committee.” According to the NBU, the Antimonopoly Committee in December 2016 returned without consideration a package of documents regarding the acquisition of control in the bank by Boris Kaufman.

Elena Gubar, Vyacheslav Sadovnichy

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Why a vacuum cleaner

“Platinum Bank” was dying for a long time: depositors complained about problems with paying deposits 1.5-3 years ago - sometimes sporadically, sometimes en masse. The bank solved liquidity problems with the help of loans from the regulator and attracting funds from new depositors thanks to increased interest rates.

Indeed, recently the bank has been “vacuuming” the population’s funds at 19.5-22% per annum, and the rate on online deposits reached 21.5-24% per annum. You won't find higher rates like these on the market. For comparison, in PrivatBank the rates during the same period were 18-20% per annum. It is not surprising that despite the problems, the bank’s deposit portfolio showed growth: from January to October 2016 it increased by UAH 1 billion.

In total, according to the latest NBU data, “Platinum” holds almost 5 billion UAH of individuals’ funds in hryvnia and almost 60 million in US dollars. The NBU assured that 97% (197 thousand people) of all depositors of Platinum Bank will receive their funds in full, since their amount does not exceed the amount of UAH 200 thousand required for compensation by the Deposit Guarantee Fund.

However, Platinum was not always a vacuum cleaner. The bank specialized in consumer lending - it was one of the few that issued cash loans without collateral. Such loans are the most risky - but also the most expensive for the borrower, that is, profitable for the bank.

This allowed Platinum to offer rates above market rates for many years in a row and be one of the most successful banks after the financial crisis of 2009. In addition, the bank was one of the first in the country to launch a high-quality online banking system, back when only a few institutions had such a service at all. more or less quality level.

The real problems began after the second wave of the crisis. An NBU audit of the bank's capital at the beginning of last year showed that it needs additional capitalization by UAH 160 million. Therefore, the recent decision to recapitalize Platinum by UAH 120 million did not save it from bankruptcy, since even after that the bank’s capital would have remained negative. This became the formal reason for declaring the bank insolvent.

Bank owners

Grigory Gurtovoy

According to the NBU, the bank has two main owners. One of them is Israeli citizen Grigory Gurtovoy, owner of the BGI holding, which controls the Israeli food supplier Willi Food. In February 2016, the entrepreneur was arrested in Israel and then released.

Gurtovoy is suspected of laundering illegal capital, obtaining profit through illegal means with aggravating circumstances and entering false information into corporate documents. The investigation is ongoing.

The second shareholder mentioned by the NBU is Ukrainian millionaire Boris Kaufman (engaged in the hotel and construction business, owner of the Vertex United group, until recently publisher of Focus magazine). Informally, Kaufman was considered the real owner of Platinum since 2013, when the bank was sold by Horizon Capital and East Capital.

Boris Kaufman

However, the millionaire announced a real connection with the bank only in the summer of 2016. Kaufman never managed to officially become a shareholder: despite an application to purchase more than 75% of the bank’s shares, the NBU did not approve it.

It was officially reported that permission from the Antimonopoly Committee was missing; in December it completed a package of documents for the purchase of Platinum. It is interesting that in the Israeli case of Gurtov, the name of Kaufman also appears - as one of the owners of the Odessa airport, who is also allegedly involved in the criminal scheme.

"Platinum" scandals

Recently, there have been many high-profile scandals around the bank - in 2016 alone there were almost a dozen of them.

First of all, this is a court case with the mobile operator MTS Ukraine, to which the bank refused to return three deposits in the amount of UAH 250 million, opened with the bank in 2014. The company won in the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal, but the bank filed a cassation appeal - and the execution of the decision was suspended.

Another legal proceeding is connected with this case: MTS Ukraine appealed to the court with a request to recognize as illegal the inaction of the NBU “regarding the failure to take appropriate measures to respond” to problems with the return of its deposit within 7 months. There is no decision that would come into force yet in this proceeding.

The bank also became involved in a scandal with another bankrupt - the Mikhailovsky Bank. It was in Platinum that the accounts of the notorious Fagor company were opened, in favor of which the management of Mikhailovsky, on the eve of the introduction of the temporary administration, reissued 111,000 loan agreements. Subsequently, the company demanded that the debtors pay funds to its accounts, however, fortunately, the agreement on the assignment of contracts was declared void, and the Deposit Guaranty Fund will now be able to use the funds to pay depositors.

Once again, next to “Mikhailovsky,” the name “Platinum” was heard in the scandalous recordings of telephone conversations allegedly of Ekaterina Rozhkova, deputy head of the NBU. They allegedly show Ekaterina Rozhkova discussing with a representative of the Platinum Public Ltd holding. additional capitalization of Platinum Bank through financial assistance, which does not require confirmation of the origin of funds and other problems of the bank. However, there is no confirmation of the authenticity of these recordings.

In addition, in June, the National Police accused the top management of Platinum Bank of embezzlement of 1 billion UAH - allegedly issued in the form of loans to companies controlled by the bank with signs of fictitiousness. This is stated in the resolution of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv. Criminal proceedings have been opened on this fact in accordance with Part 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code (misappropriation or embezzlement of property on an especially large scale).

However, the most interesting and most unpleasant things about banks come to the surface after the temporary administration enters them and gains full access to all internal documents. Therefore, it is quite possible that the biggest scandals associated with the bank are yet to come.

Corporate depositors are not losing hope of getting their deposits back at Platinum Bank, which recently introduced temporary administration. The state enterprise Ukraerorukh has been most active lately.

‘The enterprise sent letters to the National Bank, the Deposit Guarantee Fund and the temporary administrator of the bank with a request to ensure that PJSC Platinum Bank fulfills its obligations to Ukraerorukh, which arose before the introduction of the temporary administration there,’ the press service of Ukraerorukh reported.

They did not specify the amount of funds lost in the bank, although the figure of UAH 90 million had previously appeared in the media.

To get his money back, the investor even began to get involved in the process of finding investors for the unfortunate bank. 'The enterprise sent requests to banking institutions with a request to consider the possibility of participating in the DGF competition to search for pre-qualified persons who are interested in being involved in the withdrawal of an insolvent bank from the market and include in the list of obligations the funds of Ukraerorukh, which are stored in current accounts at OJSC 'Platinum Bank' ', noted the press service of Ukraerorukh.

According to rumors, the activity of the state-owned enterprise was caused by an internal investigation by the Ministry of Transport, where they still have not found out who is personally to blame for the fact that the multimillion-dollar deposit of Ukraerorukh remained in the bank, the possible closure of which the entire financial market has been talking about for more than a year. Although the fact of the official investigation is not officially confirmed, officials unofficially admit that they are actively ‘looking for the extreme’.

However, this is unlikely to help you get your money back. According to information that has not yet been confirmed, there is indeed interest in Platinum Bank’s assets. However, investors have not yet decided to ‘bail’ the bank itself, and are only talking about buying part of the loan portfolio of the problem bank. There is a rumor being actively discussed in financial circles that structures close to Sergei Tigipko’s Taskombank will buy out Platinum’s loan portfolio in the amount of UAH 2 billion. And they have even hired some of the former employees of this financial institution to work with these loans.

Credit Dnepr Bank was also interested in the assets of Platinum Bank, although it is still unclear how much of the portfolio it could get, and whether it would even be able to come to an agreement with the Deposit Guarantee Fund. Officials have so far refrained from commenting, citing the timing of the competition.

‘The deadline for submitting competitive proposals by potential investors to withdraw Platinum Bank from the market ended on February 6. They will be considered until February 9,” noted UBR.ua in the press service of the Fund.

They only confirmed that two potential investors received access to Platinum Bank information. But they did not specify in what form they would be able to work with the assets of the financial institution if the Fund enters into agreements with them.

Unofficially, the Deposit Guaranty Fund noted that such cooperation with investors will not allow corporate investors, such as Ukraerorukh, to return even part of their deposits.

Lawyers also say that they have no chance of recovering what was lost.

‘According to current legislation, legal entities are seventh in line to receive compensation for their losses in a bank with temporary administration. At the moment, there was not a single bank in Ukraine whose corporate clients reached such a queue, with the exception of very small banks withdrawn from the market due to accusations of money laundering. Typically, liquidated banks ran out of assets after satisfying the requirements of the National Bank and the state budget,” Rostislav Kravets, senior partner at the law firm Kravets and Partners, noted to UBR.ua.

He refuted the prevailing version that a legal entity can have its deposit in a problem bank unfrozen for tax payments.

‘If an enterprise, even before the introduction of temporary administration in an insolvent bank, left a payment order there for a budget payment, which was not carried out, it is possible, with the help of petitions or lawsuits, to achieve only non-application of fines to the company. That is, the State Fiscal Service will not calculate fines for late payment of taxes. But the taxes themselves will not be able to be ‘extracted’ from the problem bank; they will have to be paid from accounts in a working bank,” Kravets noted.

The fact that Ukraerorukh is a state-owned enterprise will not help him get his money back, lawyers are sure.

'Unfortunately, the status of a state enterprise will not in any way affect the fact that from the moment the NBU makes the decision to revoke the banking license and liquidate Platinum Bank, a legal entity whose money is placed in bank accounts has no choice but to apply for recognition his creditor. Submitting the above application will allow the company to become only the 7th line of accepted creditors of the bank. Which, in fact, in today’s economic realities virtually reduces to zero all the chances of a legal entity to return the funds it owns,” Vitaly Tymchuk, lawyer at AF Gramatsky and Partners, assured UBR.ua.

At the same time, enterprises will not be able to count on concessions.

'The most unpleasant thing is that for legal entities that hastily decided to become an accepted creditor of the bank, there is a very tangible risk of waiting for years for the completion of the bank's liquidation and not having the rights provided for by the Tax Code of Ukraine, to use their own funds as bad debts for the purpose of subsequently writing off such funds and adjustments to the financial result,” Tymchuk concluded.

The Deposit Guarantee Fund is preparing to begin paying deposits to clients of bankrupt institutions through all agent banks, and not just a few partners. For depositors, this will speed up the process of receiving their savings back - they will be able to receive them in the same bank in which they would like to place them on deposit (Ukrainian).

The guarantee follows the client

In 2017, the Individual Deposit Guarantee Fund will introduce a new mechanism for paying compensation for deposits to affected depositors of bankrupt banks. Instead of the current payment scheme through several agent banks (from one to ten) specially selected by the Fund, each of which monopolistically services payments in a certain area or an entire region, depositors will be able to receive a return of their money through any agent bank that they choose. “The new organizational and technical system implements the technology of accounting processes for payments of guaranteed amounts of compensation to depositors, in particular, online, and also solves the problems of operational management and control over payments,” the Fund explained.

The launch date of the new system has not been announced, since its testing has not yet been completed. “Depending on when agent banks join testing, different banks are at different stages of the process. In particular, some agent banks have already completed the testing process. Real payments of compensation to depositors through the System will be carried out after state registration of the relevant regulatory acts with the Ministry of Justice. Currently, draft regulatory acts have already been submitted to the Ministry of Justice for state registration. After the pilot project, databases of all insolvent banks will be loaded into the System,” the press service of the Deposit Guarantee Fund told FinClub. This means that under the new system payments will be made to both new bankrupt banks and “old” ones - to those clients who have not yet received their state-guaranteed up to 200 thousand UAH.

It will be easier for investors

This will significantly expand the network of payment points: the depositor will be able to choose the branch closest to him or the branch of the bank that he trusts most to receive funds. “If now a depositor can only contact one specific bank, then after the implementation of the System he will be able to contact any bank that is an agent bank of the Fund and is connected to the System,” the Fund emphasized.

The Fund does not say how many of the existing 95 banks are its agents, but they promised to later publish a list of agent banks on the website. “The system automatically monitors payments for specific deposits and will not allow repeated payments,” the Fund reported.

Now payments begin twenty days after the bank is declared insolvent. And when large banks went bankrupt, queues often appeared at agent banks, as in the case of Delta Bank, of people wanting to quickly receive payment. Because of this, people could not withdraw their savings for several days, but made an appointment for a specific day in the future. In addition, depositors complained that some agent banks did not want to pay them cash, but instead offered to deposit them into a current or deposit account at the agent bank. The new payment system should reduce the likelihood of such problems to zero. They won’t have time to apply it to Platinum Bank payments yet.

Agents will lose benefits

Until now, the Fund has selected several banks for payments. Depending on the size of the bankrupt financial institution, about three to six agent banks were involved in paying out its deposits. Such work gave them a significant advantage, since many investors did not withdraw the money, but left it in their accounts. For example, FUIB in 2015 talked about placing more than 30% of the funds paid by the Fund. “When we paid people money from the Deposit Guarantee Fund, a significant number of these depositors became our clients,” notes Senior Advisor to Alfa Bank Roman Shpek.

Now the list of agent banks will be larger, and they will not be able to monopolistically increase their deposit portfolios at the expense of bankrupt competitors. This will affect the cost of resources. “High rates in the country are caused by two reasons: either these are problems with liquidity, or this is some kind of interesting business model in which the bank manages to earn money, that is, lending,” says Dmitry Yakovlev, deputy chairman of the board of Forward Bank.