Over the last months we, together with lending companies, have been working extensively to make repayments of investors’ investments from Russia possible. At this moment, all but one lending company has signed the necessary agreements, which was a prerequisite to make the allowed payments.
The second step in the process is that these lending companies go to their banks to make the payments. This may sound easy, but in reality it’s far from a straightforward process. Banks can challenge the payments, ask for clarification on agreements, or even ask for amendments. The timeframe over which such requests are resolved unfortunately is not solely dependent on us, hence we can’t always directly influence the progress.
Last but not least, once the payment has been sent, it undergoes additional checks by the receiving bank. Considering the constantly changing sanctions environment, these checks can take more time than expected. What’s more, a payment that went through smoothly one time might not necessarily go through the same path next time. We’re providing our banks with all requested information as soon as possible to release the payments faster, but we’re not able to control the banks’ processes and work.
In a nutshell, we’ve been working hard to set up the infrastructure for receiving the payments in a compliant manner and have received additional payments. However, there still might be delays that are outside of our control.
Revo: Revo sent the regular payment of €1.3m in December. The funds will be distributed to investors once the bank has finished its AML and sanctions review and released the funds to us. We had to switch to a new bank, as the previous one, Baltic International Bank, had been placed under administration.
EcoFinance: We initially expect monthly payments of about RUB 8.5m per month, as the company also has to serve other foreign creditors. EcoFinance sent a transfer of RUB 8.5m in December, which was rejected by our bank due to its interpretation of AML and sanctions review. We are getting an additional legal opinion that the payment doesn’t violate sanctions and should be accepted by the bank.
Creditter: Creditter’s bank has asked for amendments to the signed agreements. We’ve updated the amendments, and they are now being reviewed by the bank again.
Dozarplati: Dozarplati’s bank has asked questions about technical details in the agreement. The lending company has replied to these questions and is waiting for a response from the bank when the payment can be proceeded.
Kviku: To protect investors’ interest, we currently can’t disclose more details about the recovery of the outstanding amounts. However, we have started taking certain action already in November to speed up the recovery.
Lime Zaim: We initially expect monthly payments of about RUB 8.5m per month, as the company also has to serve other foreign creditors. Lime Zaim transferred RUB 8.5m in December, which have been distributed to investors.
Mikro Kapital: Payments from Mikro Kapital are going through a complex compliance review by both the lending company and Mintos’ commercial bank. On top of that, the bank is charging significant fees for processing payments from Russia. For those reasons, we’re optimizing the process and adjusting the settlement schedule.
Mikro Kapital is making repayments for investments in EUR and RUB on a regular basis. The company has to convert its RUB liabilities to EUR as our bank doesn’t accept RUB payments. Pending payments have increased since our commercial bank has requested additional information. We’ve submitted the requested information and are waiting for a response from the bank. Since the weekly settlement amounts are relatively small, the settlement period will be changed to a monthly schedule from January to optimize transaction costs.
