Андрей Дресвянников on behalf of Сергей Лесик (Silk Road Bank, Македония) Семинар: «Ведение международного бизнеса: компании, счета и налоги» 23 Марта, г. Одесса, отель Gagarinn

1. 2000

2. 2017

3. Sergiy Lesyk, Silk Road Bank, supervisory board
member
Banking in the
modern world
Silk Road Bank AD Skopje
Dame Gruev 1
Skopje, MK-1000
Republic of Macedonia
March 2017

4. Major financial earthquake in
2008
❖ The global crisis of 2008 shook the banking system globally down to foundations
❖ Big old banks were on the brink of collapse and had to refinance one way or
another, just a few examples:
❖ UBS AG (Switzerland) was bailed out by the Swiss government (6 bn CHF)
❖ Royal Bank of Scotland (UK) was partly nationalised (GBP20bn injection in
debt and equity)
❖ Citibank (US) was rescued by the US government (USD45bn in two tranches)
❖ Lehman Brothers went bust (it took more than 5 years to untangle all the
contracts and liabilities)
❖ The governments and financial regulators had to react

5. Tectonic shifts as a reaction
❖ Ample liquidity, low interest rates;
❖ De-mediation;
❖ Increased reserve and capital requirements, moving from Basel II to Basel
III:
❖ subsidiaries
❖ geography
❖ non-core activities
❖ Personal responsibility of compliance officers
❖ FATF and FATCA become more stringent
❖ Nothing personal, just risk management

6. Ukrainian domestic events
❖ Entangled interests of elites
❖ Difficult to understand
❖ Very few clean success stories
❖ Endemic proverbial corruption
❖ Problems in demonstrating source of funds
❖ !!! some good news - NBU relaxed foreign accounts
rules

7. Implications for clients
❖ some clients were asked to close their accounts
❖ some banks stopped working with some countries particularly ex USSR
❖ banks are asking to provide more information on themselves and more detailed
information on the transactions
❖ stop list of individuals expanded
❖ some banks do not have enough resources to tell a a difference between Yanukovich
and Yushchenko and sometimes block genuine clients and genuine transactions
❖ some banks assessed that potential revenues are much smaller than costs of
compliance
❖ USD transactions are mostly under control
❖ Fewer participants -> Less competition -> higher costs (transaction and interest
rates)

8. It is not all over
❖ Further implementation of Basel III
❖ Cleaning up of the banking system is not finished, licenses are being
revoked and corresponding relationships, particularly in USD are being
closed
❖ Banks in the Baltics are continuing clean-up, closing client account,
rising tariffs.
❖ Italian banking system is not healthy, Monte Paschi di Siena, case in
point
❖ German banking system is not healthy, DB is under investigation
❖ There are renewed issues about the Greek banking system

9. What is next
❖ Crypto-currencies (Bitcoin, Etherium), mobile money,
new non-SWIFT payment networks
❖ IT impact, total supply management (Blockchain)
❖ Further de-mediation (Direct payments, Peer to peer
lending, crowdfunding)

10. New in banking -BlockChain

11. New in banking -BlockChain

12. Silk Road Bank offering
❖ Silk Road Bank is one of the few offering off shore operating accounts in USD, EUR, GBP, CHF
❖ Republic of Macedonia is not part of the EU but part of SEPA (through Bank of Italy)
❖ Corresponding banks: DB-BT (USD), CS (CHF), Standard Chartered (GBP)
❖ Two weeks, two stage opening process:
❖ first stage: forms to fill in (one week to review), business description, initial document review
(certificate of incorporation, copies of the passports of UBO and signatories, CoGS - no later
than three months)
❖ second stage: any additional documents request (depending on corporate structure and nature
of business) and review (one week for review)
❖ Original opening forms, agreements and notarised copies of the passports, CoGS are sent to
finalise account opening.
❖ Tariff structure is flexible and negotiable (available on the web site www.silkroadbank.com.mk )

13. Thank you
❖ Thank you!
❖ Feel free to ask more questions:
❖ Sergiy Lesyk
❖ Andrew Dresvyannikov (Abbottpm – UK +Kiev)
❖ Irina Voyevodina (rep in Odessa)