Ūkio bankas


Ūkio Bankas was a Lithuanian commercial bank based in Kaunas. More than 50% of shares are owned by Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov who therefore is in the control of the bank. It was the fifth largest and oldest private bank in Lithuania.
In October 2006 during an internet conference on the news portal Delfi.lt Vladimir Romanov announced his plans of selling his shares to the strategic investor. GE Money, a branch of General Electric, as one of the possible buyers was mentioned by Romanov.
In common with other banks Ūkio Bankas suffered from the effects of credit crunch and on 26 August 2008 rating agency Standard & Poor downgraded the banks status from stable to negative.
The organisation sponsored Lithuanian football club FBK Kaunas and Scottish team Hearts. Romanov was the owner of Hearts and a board member of FBK Kaunas.
Ūkio bankas has been associated with money laundering known as the ŪkioLeaks or Troika Laundromat. Reported by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project as the Russian Laundering Machine on 22 November 2011, Ūkio bankas used Sergey Magnitsky's stolen Hermitage Capital Management subsidiaries HSBC Guernsey Ltd, OOO Rilend, OOO Parfenion, and OOO Markhaon to finance through Bristoll, Nomirex and Tormex, Al-Shabaab's Russian weapons built by Ukraine and pro Kremlin South Sudan militants weapons transfers from Ukraine
In February 2013 the bank was revealed to have poor asset quality, weak risk management and lack of proper operating data. The check also revealed that the bank has ignored the central bank's recommendation to reduce operating risks. On 12 February, the Bank of Lithuania in accordance with Art. 76 of the Law on Banks of the Republic of Lithuania announced a partial and temporal restriction on activities of AB Ūkio bankas. Ukio was removed from the Lithuanian stock exchange later that month, with many of its assets and liabilities transferred to.