Russia to bail out Trust Bank with up to $530 million
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian mid-sized lender Trust Bank is to receive up to 30 billion rubles ($530 million) from the central bank to stop it going bankrupt in the first bailout of its kind during the current rouble crisis.
The central bank also said its Deposit Insurance Agency, responsible for managing crisis-hit lenders, would take over interim supervision of Trust Bank as of Monday.
The measures "will make it possible for Trust to continue smooth payments operations. All the bank's clients, including depositors, can use its services as usual", the central bank said in a statement.
Trust, which hired actor Bruce Willis as its face for a series of advertisements, is Russia's 32nd largest lender by assets, according to Interfax data. It is also 15th biggest by private personal accounts, including deposits.
As of Dec. 1, Trust held 145 billion rubles ($2.63 billion) in private personal deposits, according to its accounts. Last week, the Finance Ministry proposed doubling deposit insurance to 1.4 million rubles ($25,000) if a bank fails.
Under increasing pressure from a plummeting rouble and western sanctions over Ukraine, Russia's banking sector could get a capital boost of up to 1 trillion rubles ($18 billion) under a new law being prepared by the government.
The central bank said it would soon select an investor to bail out Trust Bank, most likely to be one of the country's major banks.
(Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Oksana Kobzeva; Editing by Lidia Kelly, John Stonestreet and Giles Elgood)
