OREANDA-NEWS. March 26, 2012. Moody's Investors Service has confirmed earlier ratings of FundServiceBank: the standalone bank financial strength rating (BFSR) of E+, mapping to B3 on the long-term scale, and the B3 long-term global local and foreign currency deposit ratings. In the same time, the agency has placed these ratings on review due to the recent comments in the media placing the Bank into a rather unfavourable information environment.

 Moody's rating action followed recent public comments made by officers of the Russian Interior Ministry's Economic Security Directorate alleging that FundServiceBank supposedly trespassed on certain banking regulations. The allegations followed police checks on some operations of the Bank’s customers as part of a broader investigation by Russian authorities involving other banks and companies.

 These comments were echoed in the media and have driven a concern about the possibility of a regulatory response towards FundServiceBank and the risk of weakening of relationships between the Bank and its key customers and creditors, which would have negative implications for the Bank's ratings.

 Moody's considers FundServiceBank’s vigorous rebuttal of these allegations, while police officials provided no evidence supporting their suspicions. The Bank maintains strong anti-money-laundering and control policies which do not allow executing illegal money operations.

 As no official statements were made either by the Central Bank of Russia or by Rosfinmonitoring sustaining police comments about FundServiceBank's possible involvement in the case under investigation, Moody's incorporates a degree of information risk in the rating assessment. Over the next several months, Moody's will monitor the Russian authorities' decisions towards FundServiceBank as well as the possible impact of these developments on the bank's financial performance and customer base.

 FundServiceBank expresses a strong hope that the situation will clear up soon and the Moody’s will stop the procedure of ratings review. Domestic rating agencies as far are refraining from any rating revision procedures with regard to FundServiceBank. Meanwhile the Bank continues its work servicing customers and executing operations in a regular way.