The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is preparing to sell the Asian-Pacific Ocean Bank (Aziatsko-Tikhookenskiy Bank, ATB), which was bailed by the regulator in a four-year sector clean-up drive completed in 2017, the deputy head of the CBR Vasily Poszyshev told the press on August 1.

The sale will be the first attempt to recovery some of the trillions of rubles spent on the bailouts. It is not planned to merge ATB with any of the the bailed banks, but will instead be sold in September in an open auction, Pozdyshev said.

The bank will be recapitalised with about RUB10bn ($158mn), covering the current a negative capital of RUB2.5bn, the CBR official said, arguing that both banking and non-banking groups would be interested in the asset, expecting to sell the bank for "capital's worth at best".

Notably, this makes the first case that a bailed bank will be sold separately and not thrown into a RUB2 trillion pool of "bad assets" fund. Other post-cleanup measures include merging ailed FC Otkritie with BinBank, and designating bailed Prosmsvyazbank (PSB) to become a state "defence bank" servicing the military and defence complex.

The CBR previously argued that the bailout mechanisms, that de facto require new monetary emissions, are not affecting the monetary policy as they are distributed via the Fund for Consolidation of Banking Sector established in 2017.

However, the regulator’s spending spree might be grabbing Kremlin's attention, as previous reports suggested that Audit Chamber under recently appointed heavyweight policymaker Alexei Kudrin is pushing to gain the right to scrutinise the CBR and the bailouts.