"South" and "East" get ready? NBU may revoke banks ' licenses for systematic violation of the law

The National Bank may revoke the banking license of a financial institution for systematic violation of the law, and persons who caused damage to the bank by their actions may be brought to criminal responsibility. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive comment UNN by lawyer Sergey Lysenko.

Thus, article 218-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine states that a criminal offense is bringing a bank to insolvency, that is, intentionally, for selfish reasons, other personal interest or in favor of third parties, committing any actions by a person associated with the bank that led to the bank being classified as insolvent, if it caused great material damage to the state or creditor,

The lawyer explained that in fact, if the property was mortgaged several times and the bank exposed itself to significant credit risks by such lending, which caused it significant damage, then the persons who caused this damage can be brought to criminal responsibility.

He specified that according to the legislation, persons associated with the bank include bank controllers, persons who have a significant participation in a financial institution, and persons through whom indirect ownership of a significant participation in the bank is carried out, heads of the internal audit division, heads and members of committees of the bank's board and the bank's management board.

The lawyer added that although the person to whom the loan is issued is obliged to notify the Bank of collateral for property that was previously available, however, it is the persons associated with the bank who will be criminally liable for bringing the bank to insolvency.

According to Lysenko, such an offense should be investigated by the National Police of Ukraine or the Bureau of economic security.

The National Bank of Ukraine, in turn, may declare the bank insolvent or revoke its license for such actions. "If a bank systematically violates the legislation in the field of preventing and countering the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, the NBU may revoke its banking license," Lysenko said.

At the same time, the lawyer reminded that according to the law, the bank must check the property that is pledged to it under the loan for whether it is not burdened with another loan.

When calculating the amount of credit risk, the bank accepts the value of collateral, which is acceptable collateral, provided that they belong to the list of collateral and at the same time comply with the principle of unhindered recovery. This principle provides that the subject of collateral must have a higher priority of encumbrance in favor of the bank in the relevant register in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of Ukraine for a period not less than the term of validity of the loan agreement. To comply with this principle, banks are required to check whether such property has been pledged to other banks. If such property was transferred to other banks, then the principle of unhindered recovery will not be observed and the bank will have significant credit risks, because the primary right to recovery will be given to banks to which this property was pledged earlier.,

He also noted that the bank should issue a loan secured by already encumbered property only if the previous collateral agreements do not provide for restrictions on subsequent collateral.

However, it is worth noting that such actions of the bank can lead to its insolvency, because first of all, if the debtor violates the terms of the loan agreement, then the claims of the pledgee, who has the right of pledge arose later, are satisfied with the value of the subject of pledge after securing the claims of previous pledgees. That is, in most cases, if the property has already been mortgaged three times, the bank will not be able to return the funds issued on credit in full,

Recall

UNN reported that Odessa businessmen Sergey Groza and Vladimir Naumenko, with the help of their companies that managed the Olimpex grain terminal, managed to re-pledge Property three times . Half of the Olimpex terminal, in particular Sukhoi Port, has been secured by the American fund since 2019. And when Groza and Naumenko probably decided not to give away 7 75 million. they took out a loan from the Ukrainian banks Vostok and Yuzhny on the security of the same property that the Americans had. After that, the banks allegedly sold the collateral at a probably very low price, and, in the end, it was under another pledge, but already, as the media write, in companies controlled by Groza and Naumenko. Thus, they probably wanted to retain control of the largest gate. Gray exports in 2021-2023. It is possible that Vadim Morokhovsky, chairman of the management board of Vostok Bank and concurrently chairman of the servant of the people faction in the Odessa city council, helped in the implementation of the plan. According to sources UNN, the loan agreement between Groza and Naumenko stipulated that they had to coordinate any actions regarding the property of Olimpex with American creditors.