What is known about the Hephaestus Bank, which has been deprived of its license

On February 28, the Central Bank revoked the license of the Tver bank Hephaestus. According to the Central Bank, the bank violated the requirements of the law on combating legalization of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism. What is known about the bank is in the Kommersant certificate.

The commercial bank “Gefest” was founded in 1990 on the basis of the specialized state credit institution Agroprombank. Its founders were enterprises of the agro-industrial complex of the Kimry district of the Tver region. In 2004, the bank was included in the deposit insurance system of the Bank of Russia.

In 2009, businessman Vyacheslav Ananskikh, who also ran the St. Petersburg outdoor advertising operator Ruan, became the owner of the bank. In the same year, a branch of the Hephaestus Design Bureau was opened in St. Petersburg.

In 2017, businessman Vyacheslav Ananskikh was searched as part of an investigation into the case of illegal cash withdrawal of funds from the Hephaestus Bank. The businessman himself called this a consequence of his conflict with the St. Petersburg Press Committee, which allegedly demolished advertising structures that belonged to “Ruan.” Based on the results of an investigation by the Russian Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg, it was found that from 2013 to 2017, criminals illegally cashed out about 2 billion rubles, receiving more than 127 million rubles for this. income. Nine members of the criminal group were given suspended sentences. Among them were… O. manager of the Hephaestus bank Elena Galichina and producer Vladimir Smolkin.

According to SPARK-Interfax, Gefest is currently owned by the Art and Production Association (KhPO) company. The company supplies theatrical props and stage costumes, and is also an operator of outdoor advertising. KhPO is headed by Vyacheslav Ananskikh. The owners of KhPO are LLC “Gorizont” and LLC “Paris” registered in St. Petersburg (the general director and owner in both cases is also Mr. Ananskikh).

The bank works with legal entities and individuals. According to the Central Bank, as of February 1, 2024, Hephaestus occupied 336th place in the Russian banking system in terms of assets. The bank’s net loss for the nine months of 2023 amounted to RUB 31.8 million.

The insurance liability of the Deposit Insurance Agency to depositors of Bank Hephaestus is tentatively estimated at 181.2 million rubles. Payments must begin no later than March 13.