What was illegally taken away cannot be deemed recovered

A positive judgment in a fight to recover a recalled banking license is rare for the Russian court practice. But even then the owners of such banks will be unable to promptly resume the operations. In a dispute between the owners of Atlas Bank, which has lost its license, with the Central Bank, the court for the first time clearly determined: a revocation of the order to recall the license does not automatically lead to its recovery.

The judges’ position that the revocation of the Central Bank’s order to recall the bank’s license does not directly charge the regulator with re-issuing it is located in the files of the court of arbitration. As Kommersant informed in February, Atlas Bank of Montenegro had appealed against the Central Bank’s order to recall the license from its Russian subsidiary and was able to obtain a positive judgment in the instance of appeal in February (see Kommersant dated February 11). The regulator filed a cassation complaint, together with a request to suspend the execution of the judgment until the completion of the judicial proceedings. The Central Bank alleged that, if it returned the license, it would be difficult for it to recall it again, should the regulator win the trials, “because the current legislation does not stipulate the procedure of re-recalling of a license” <...>

Alexander Bolomatov, Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", points out that the bank’s owners in such situation might attempt to make their claims more precise indicating the return of the license. However, the bankers do not intend to deepen the conflict with the regulator yet.

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