Platinum Bank is coming up with tricks to avoid returning a multi-million dollar deposit to the mobile operator. How to get a Platinum Bank deposit in excess of the guaranteed amount? The guarantee follows the client

Based on the decision of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine dated January 10, 2017 No. 14-рш/БТ “On classifying the Public Joint Stock Company “Platinum Bank” as insolvent,” the executive directorate of the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals adopted decision dated January 11, 2017 No. 85 “On the introduction temporary administration at PJSC "Platinum Bank" and delegation of powers to the temporary administrator of the bank."

According to the NBU, 97% of all depositors of PJSC “Platinum Bank” will receive their deposits in full, because their amount does not exceed the amount guaranteed by the Deposit Guarantee Fund of UAH 200 thousand. Clients with a larger volume of deposits will receive them within the amount guaranteed by the Deposit Guarantee Fund. In general, the Fund will ensure payment of the guaranteed amount of deposits in the amount of about 4.8 billion UAH, that is, your money will definitely be returned.

In order to meet the mandatory standards for recapitalization of the bank, PJSC "Platinum Bank" submitted a restructuring plan to the National Bank, which provided for taking the necessary measures to meet the requirements for recapitalization. In particular, during 2016, management and owners of significant participation contributed more than UAH 323 million to the bank’s capital.

For more than 10 years, the bank’s team has been actively working to ensure that economic indicators comply with NBU requirements, and Platinum Bank has always been a reliable partner for its depositors and clients. To ensure territorial availability in different regions of Ukraine, we constantly developed a regional network of branches and sales points. Combining our unique business model with a development strategy, we have repeatedly been among the leaders in the consumer lending segment.

According to the decision of the NBU, the procedure for withdrawing the PUBLIC JOINT STOCK COMPANY "Platinum Bank" from the market has begun by introducing a temporary administration for one month from January 11, 2017 to February 10, 2017 inclusive, an authorized person of the Fund has been appointed and all powers of the temporary administrator of PJSC "PLATINUM BANK" have been delegated. , defined by Articles 37-39 of the Law of Ukraine “On the System of Guaranteeing Deposits of Individuals”, to the leading specialist on issues of resolving bank insolvency of the department for implementing the procedure for temporary administration and liquidation of the department for resolving bank insolvency Irklienko Yuri Petrovich for one month from January 11, 2017 to February 10, 2017 inclusive.

Details of PJSC "Platinum Bank" EDRPOU code 33308489, MFO 380388, location: st. Amosova, 12, Kiev, 03680.

The time and procedure for payments to depositors of PJSC "Platinum Bank" will be announced additionally on the official website of the Fund ─ www.fg.gov.ua, on the website of PJSC "Platinum Bank" ─ www..

Reference information by phone:

“Hotline for guaranteeing deposits of individuals”: ​​0800 308-108 (free from landline and mobile phones within Ukraine)

PJSC "Platinum Bank": 0800 308 308 (calls from landlines within Ukraine are free) or from mobile ─ 3080 (according to the tariffs of your operator).

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 submit an application 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.

How did I get my deposit?

I copy my review to all sites so that no one else gets into this “bank”. I’m sharing my experience with a lot of nerves, but I still managed to take my money from them.
On the day the deposit ended, I (as prescribed in the agreement with the bank) came to the branch and wrote a refusal to prolong the contract and an application for the issuance of money - they have no right to refuse this (take copies immediately). At first I was pressed for a long time about extending the contract. Then they said that since my deposit was transferred to them...

From the "problematic" Finbank, they will not give me the money. To which I showed the agreement with Platinum Bank, where there are no clauses on this matter. After a long, fruitless discussion on this topic, the deputy head of the department “had mercy” and “meeted me halfway,” saying that the most “she can do for me” is to return 10% of the deposit, and extend the rest for the shortest period of 2 weeks. I demanded the full amount, despite her admonitions to tell me why I needed the money so urgently. In the end, I demanded a written refusal from the bank to give me the full amount. And this had an effect - they asked me 2 banking days to bring the entire amount of my deposit.
On the right day, it turned out that the head of the department came back from vacation and canceled the decision of my question by her deputy! But I assumed such dishonesty (the bank has a corresponding reputation), so I consulted in advance with lawyers and familiar non-ordinary employees of other banks. As a result, I had to eliminate the legal illiteracy of Platinum employees within a few hours, explaining that extracting personal information from a client and promises to pay part of the deposit in exchange for extending the deposit is Article 163 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (blackmail), and refusal to return the entire amount is Article 190 (fraud) and 191 (misappropriation of personal property) of the Criminal Code, so I now call the police and write a corresponding statement, then I go to court and platinum not only gives me my contribution, but also compensates for the % lost during this time (Article 1061 of the Civil Code and Resolution of the Supreme Court dated 05.25.13), and also pays penalties and fines for late payment. I’m also writing a complaint to the NBU, because a bank “without cash” cannot work. The only thing that worried the head of the department out of all of the above was the criminal case that would be opened against her (it was not the head of the board who refused to return my money). She called her boss and the “cash” was found in the bank! Within a few days I was paid everything.
I was ready to do everything that was promised, because I called all the authorities in advance: at 102 they told me that they would send an order within a few minutes to the department and draw up a statement there (I am far from the first who contacted them on this issue); the NBU was asked to send a complaint with copies of the agreement, receipt, applications for cash withdrawal, etc. by registered mail or bring it in person to the office so that they could begin inspections and other procedures; The court said that after the relevant decision of the Supreme Court, such cases are generally resolved almost “automatically.” So don’t be afraid to defend the right to your own money (which for some reason Platinum considers its own, and not the client’s)!

The Cyprus offshore company PT Platinum Public Ltd filed a lawsuit in the Economic Court of Kyiv against its subsidiary Platinum Bank and MTS Ukraine (Vodafone). He demanded that the agreement between the Ukrainian bank and the mobile operator be invalidated. The court scheduled the case for October 6. Details of the lawsuit are not yet publicly available.

Platinum is ready to comment on the circumstances of the dispute only if there is a decision that has entered into force, the PR-Service agency, which services the bank, reported. We are talking about an old story - a deposit agreement between MTS and Platinum in the amount of UAH 250 million, which the bank cannot return to the depositor.

Background

In October-December 2014, MTS Ukraine placed three deposits with Platinum Bank - for UAH 100 million, UAH 70 million and UAH 80 million. After the expiration of the period - in July and September of the following year - they could not be returned, and the depositor sued the bank. On December 24, 2015, the Kyiv economic court sided with the operator. The consideration of the case in the appellate instance was terminated on February 16, 2016 at the initiative of the bank itself.

A little later, Platinum asked to defer payment until the end of October. But the court cut it in half and set a new deadline: Platinum had to return the money to the operator by July 14. The bank again decided to challenge the decision of the first instance. He managed to renew the deadline for filing an appeal, and the case is now in court.

I'm spinning and twisting

From the new application to the court it follows: the plaintiff (an offshore company whose shareholder is still entrepreneur Grigory Gurtovoy) learned of the court’s decision to recover UAH 250 million from Platinum Bank only in April from the court register.

In its lawsuit, PT Platinum Public insists that the deposit agreement is invalid. According to the shareholder, the bank's board allegedly exceeded its powers by signing the agreement. According to PT Platinum Public, transactions whose size exceeds 25% of the bank's assets must be approved at a meeting of shareholders. Moreover, as the shareholder writes in the lawsuit, issues submitted by the supervisory board are considered at this meeting. The competence of the supervisory board includes reviewing transactions whose value ranges from 10 to 25% of the bank’s assets according to the latest financial statements.

Thus, explains PT Platinum Public, the board could independently decide on transactions that do not exceed 10% of assets. It is noteworthy that, according to the bank’s financial statements for the third quarter of 2014, just before the deal with MTS, the size of its total assets was UAH 5.7 billion. And the board, in theory, could independently make decisions on agreements up to UAH 570 million. This is less than the mobile operator’s deposit, even taking into account interest payments (+50 million UAH).

PT Platinum Public thinks differently. Thus, the bank’s shareholder took as the basis for calculations not the value of assets, but the authorized capital indicator - UAH 817 million. Then the amount of the transaction under the agreement with MTS is almost a third of the authorized capital, which means that the board did not have the right to sign it, PT Platinum concludes.

Platinum Bank itself used the same argument when it filed an appeal in June against the decision of the court of first instance, which at the end of 2015 ordered to pay the debt of MTS Ukraine. It is currently being considered in court at the same time.

MTS Ukraine lawyers believe that the financial institution is deliberately delaying the return of deposit funds. “The bank has been illegally holding them for almost a year,” the company notes. In the summer, the mobile operator also demanded that the bank pay a penalty for the penalty arising under the contract - UAH 90 million. The court then decided to wait for the verdict on the main claim.

Conditionally problematic

At the end of May, the mobile operator filed a separate lawsuit against the National Bank demanding that Platinum be recognized as a problem bank, since it is not able to pay off the deposit. MTS says that there is no solution yet.

Are there other reasons for this? In August, it became known about Boris Kaufman’s plans to officially become a shareholder of the bank and pour UAH 120 million into its authorized capital. The volume of non-refundable financial assistance to the institution in 2016-2018 should exceed UAH 240 million, the shareholder’s lawsuit also states.

The bank actively attracts depositors and spends a lot on advertising its services (UAH 19 million in the first half of the year). At the beginning of the year, he proposed placing hryvnia deposits at 27% per annum. Now rates have dropped to 21% per annum, but this is still higher than the market average - 16-20% per annum.

High rates help - the volume of Platinum deposits in the first half of the year increased by UAH 657 million, notes Alexander Paraschiy, head of the analytical department of Concorde Capital. The bank is among the top 5 banks in terms of the volume of inflows of household funds.

Attracting deposits is an important factor that allowed the bank to stay afloat in the first half of the year, the analyst believes. There is also a downside. Now you have to pay more on issued deposits than the bank earns on loans. “He spent UAH 221 million to cover the difference between the interest received and paid in the first half of the year,” notes Paraschiy.

Is Platinum able to pay off other investors? According to the bank's reporting at the beginning of the year, the liquidity gap was UAH 1.3 billion. Paraschiy suggests that the gap has grown, since in the first half of the year cash in the bank decreased by UAH 176 million. “In general, it does not seem that the bank has the ability to repay a large deposit,” the analyst notes. The situation with MTS Ukraine confirms this.

Many depositors of bankrupt banks who have funds in their accounts and deposits in excess of the guaranteed amount, and it is now 200,000 hryvnia, are puzzled by the question - “How to get a deposit amount in excess of the guaranteed 200,000 hryvnia?”

Today, the Deposit Guarantee Fund has provided such an opportunity to depositors of Platinum Bank and published information about legal methods and actions for receiving money in excess of the guaranteed amount.

We would like to say that this is the first time that the Deposit Guarantee Fund publishes this type of information for the category of clients of one selected bank; as a rule, this information is posted on the website of the guarantee fund and about 30% of depositors of Platinum Bank, and other banks, are not aware of such opportunities. By the way, everything that is stated below also applies to the rights of depositors of other bankrupt banks.

What is written in the law that makes it possible to receive deposits of 200,000+?

According to the law on the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals, it is stated that the depositor has the right to demand from the fund payment of an amount that exceeds the amount guaranteed by the fund. The depositor of a bankrupt bank can submit these requirements at a certain time and in a certain format. The time for submitting a claim is limited to 30 days from the date of official announcement of the commencement of liquidation of the bankrupt bank. The beginning of the liquidation process of Platinum Bank was marked by the date March 1, 2017. It is from this date that depositors can contact Platinum Bank and demand payment of amounts in excess of UAH 200,000.

A depositor of a bankrupt bank can put forward his demands by submitting an application called “Statement of claims of creditors of a bank that is being liquidated.” A sample of this application can be found here -

Of course, payments to you will not be made immediately, but one by one. First, there are payments of guaranteed amounts to depositors, then the bank settles with the guarantee fund, then there is a process of selling the bank’s property, and only then will they pay money in excess of the guaranteed amounts to those who submitted an application through the sale of the bank’s property.

Where can Platinum Bank depositors apply?

The Deposit Guarantee Fund has provided Platinum Bank depositors with the opportunity to submit a Statement of Claims from creditors of the bank that is being liquidated to a specific list of branches, which we will provide in the table below. We remind you that applications from Platinum Bank depositors to receive deposits and deposits in excess of the guaranteed 200,000 UAH will be accepted from March 1, 2017 to March 31, 2017.