site.btaCorpbank Majority Owner Says He is Close to Solution for Bank

Corpbank Majority Owner Says
He is Close to Solution
for Bank


Sofia, August 25 (BTA) - The majority owner of the troubled
Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank), Tsvetan Vassilev, said in
a new statement Monday that he is working, jointly with his
partners of Oman's State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) and other
investors, on a model for restructuring the bank. "I believe
that we are close to bringing forward a principles solution for
the bank's recovery in keeping with the legislative standards
for capital adequacy and liquidity," Vassilev says in the
statement published in his personal blog.

Corpbank has been inoperable since June 21 due to lack of liquid
assets and has been placed under special supervision by the
central bank to allow a thorough audit and possible
restructuring.

Vassilev's statement comes days after the central bank said that
himself, through his company Bromak, had taken no steps to lend
support to the bank and that initial declarations for support
by Corpbank's second largest shareholder, SGRF, involved
considerable liquidity aid by the central bank, which is
impossible under the effective legislation.

Vassilev denies that and calls the central bank's take on the
situation "cynical". He also says that none of the competent
authorities has asked him to participate in the capitalization
of the bank or in the efforts to find a solution to what he
claims to be an engineered crisis.

He says that the bank has been the victim of "a ruin plot",
accuses the central bank, the Corpbank controllers and the other
competent state bodies of applying dual standards in their
treatment of financial players and warns that this might cause a
financial catastrophe for the whole country, the business
community and households. "The result will not be merely the
failure of one financial institution but the collapse of
businesses which the bank has successfully catered to and which
generate hundreds of million of leva. There will be nothing to
fill this gap and the image of the country will be undermined
beyond repair in the eyes of international investors. If this
scenario materializes, everybody who suffer the aftermath of the
actions or inactions of the state bodies and the central bank,
will hold responsible for this the State and the competent
authorities," the statement goes.

Tsvetan Vassilev has been charged with gross official
embezzlement in the Corpbank case but his whereabouts have so
far been unknown. Four other bank officials, including the CEO
and the chief cashier face malfeasance charges. LN/