Central Bank of Azerbaijan annulled the license of Royal Bank

Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has deprived the license to conduct banking activities of Royal Bank. Turan was learned from sources in the banking environment. In the Bank Turan said that they had not received formal notification of the decision of the Central Bank.

The reasons for the decision to clarify the CBA Turan failed, but it should be noted that in recent times the name of Royal Bank-and often mentioned in various illegal banking transactions. So according to the publication in Yeni Musavat, Royal Bank came under the supervision of the Ministry of National Security on suspicion of illegal money transfers. The reason for the initiation of the investigation surrounding the bank of the DHS was the speech of U.S. colleagues who turn revealed the issuance of Royal Bank-th more than 100 thousand citizens of Iran, millions of dollars in loans for use against Iran, after a few months earlier, banking and financial sanctions. In addition, disclosed in November 2010, the network project Wikileaks secret correspondence of the former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse, the latter shared the suspicions of money laundering assistance from Iran several Azerbaijani banks, including Royal Bank. More recently, Directorate for Combating Corruption under the Prosecutor General has completed the investigation in respect of employees of one of the branches, which found that the head of the branch Khazar, together with the cashier of the bank and a specialist, and others made out fake credit agreement.

The main shareholder (44.5% equity) in force since 1993 and the Royal Bank-is a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent, Ali Jam.

The last time the CBA in January last year canceled the license of Birlik Bank, basing its decision on the fact that the bank did not fulfill obligations to lenders and does not ensure the security of their own assets, violated banking laws, including the management and ongoing activities were not reliable and was not carried out on the basis of prudential (regulatory) rules. In addition, the bank has consistently failed to fulfill instructions of the Central Bank.

At present, functioning in Azerbaijan, most likely, are already 43 banks including a state financial institution. - 15B -