A bank that is in the process of liquidation and whose license to provide banking services has been revoked cannot charge interest on a loan or deposit - it is illegal. This position was expressed in a commentary to UNN by Dmytro Kasyanenko, partner and managing director of Kasyanenko & Partners Law Firm.
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"If a bank is in the process of liquidation and it continues to accrue interest, it will be possible to talk in court about stopping the accrual of interest. If the bank's license is revoked and the bank is being liquidated, it cannot provide such services, and therefore the accrual of interest after the liquidation procedure is introduced may already be illegal. It is illegal if the license is revoked", - explained the lawyer, commenting on the situation when after the start of the liquidation procedure, its clients continue to be charged interest on the loan, while no interest is charged on deposits.
This situation, as UNN reported, leads to complications, because companies often take out a loan secured by a deposit, and the interest on the loan is repaid with the interest received from the deposit. At the same time, when a bank is liquidated, enterprises find themselves in a situation where they have to repay the interest on the loan without having any profit from the deposit , because according to the law, interest is no longer accrued on the deposit.
Several companies that took out a loan secured by a deposit with Concord Bank found themselves in this situation, and with the start of the bank's liquidation procedure, they continue to pay interest on the loan. The companies have repeatedly applied to the Deposit Guarantee Fund to restructure the interest on the loan or to withdraw the deposit to repay the loan. However, the situation has remained unresolved since August 1, when the NBU announced the liquidation of Concord Bank and revoked its license.
As lawyers explain, the Deposit Guarantee Fund has all the legal grounds to resolve this situation. And companies that find themselves in a difficult situation have legal grounds to demand a solution. In particular, as Dmytro Kasyanenko points out, the legislation provides for the concept of a creditor's delay, which occurs when the creditor does not fulfill the terms of the loan agreement and the pledge agreement.
"In this case, Article 613 of the Civil Code allows the debtor - the borrower of credit funds - to be exempt from paying interest, penalties, forfeit, penalties and the principal of the loan. This is because the fulfillment of the terms of the deposit pledge agreement directly depends on the fulfillment of the terms of the loan agreement. In this case, the pledge agreement clearly states that the deposit funds secure the fulfillment of the loan agreement. Therefore, it is necessary to record the relationship between the borrower and the debtor in the form of a written request to the bank to fulfill the terms of the deposit agreement," the lawyer believes.
In addition, lawyers note that in this situation, the Fund should not continue to charge interest, but should immediately make a decision and foreclose on the deposit (collateral) to repay the debt.