U.S. imposes sanctions against company controlled by Russian citizen who wanted to create a bank in Kazakhstan

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has included Russian Expobank on its sanctioned list. In early December 2023, some media outlets reported that Igor Kim, co-owner of Expobank, wanted to transform its Kazakhstani microfinance organization Bereke into a bank. The businessman also controls Seif Lombard in Kazakhstan.

As Expobank representatives told Frank Media, the bank continues to work as usual and all transactions are available for those who possess cards issued by the financial institution. The bank’s client will also be able to conduct money transfers to countries considered by Russia as «friendly» with the help of a wide network of corresponding accounts in foreign bank correspondents.

Expobank is ranked 38th in terms of net assets of $259 million in Russia. Kim also owned Bank ExpoCredit in Kazakhstan which he sold to ZIM Capital in 2017. Later, along with Tsesnabank and ATFBank, this credit organization became a part of Jusan Bank.

The new U.S. sanctions haven’t hit Kim personally, though. In Russia, structures controlled by Kim specialize in purchasing financial companies that want to leave Russia. For instance, the businessman’s companies have acquired the leasing and factoring division of CNH Industrial, an Italian-American multinational corporation specializing in equipment and services for agriculture and construction. Expobank even negotiated a similar deal with HSBC, although the transaction hasn’t yet been approved by authorized agencies in Russia. In 2022, Expobank sold its last European asset Expobank a.d. in Serbia.

In early December, Forbes Kazakhstan wrote about Kim’s intention to transform his Bereke microfinance business, which was quite a small entity, into a commercial bank. The businessman has even chosen a name for his new company: Safe Bank. However, no timeline for the transformation is available because the deal has yet to be approved by regulators in Kazakhstan. The bank’s headquarters is expected to be located in Almaty, although Bereke is based in the town of Semey. Even though there is no data about how big a share Kim can control in the new business, perhaps he wouldn’t be the sole shareholder as the only legitimate form of a bank must be a joint stock company, according to Kazakhstan’s legislation.

In December 2022, Kim’s Seif Lombard acquired Bereke from a group of individuals with minority shares of $636,493, although the asset was evaluated at $4.6 million with $2.5 in liabilities. After that Kim transformed the microfinance organization into a joint-stock venture and increased its registered capital from $218,726 to $7.4 million.

Kim has directly controlled Bereke since September of this year. He also continued to purchase new assets in Kazakhstan. For example, his Seif Lombard purchased a 100% share in Turgay Central Asia, a company engaged in bulk trade with cars. Apart from this company, Seif Lombard also controls Seif Finance in Russia, Seif LOMBARD in Uzbekistan and Cashdrive, Seif Car and Cashdrive.kz in Kazakhstan.

Kursiv has sent a request to the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market and asked to comment on the deal.