Russia's state-owned VTB Bank accidentally credits African nation with $12bn unexplained loan

RUSSIAN state financial institution VTB Bank accidentally credited the Central African Republic (Car) with $12bn in what has been described as an accounting error according to its quarterly financial report published by the Russian Central Bank.

In what the bank said was a clerical error, the money appeared as being paid into Car's accounts but it now appears that there was no such loan given. The Russian Central Bank report included a table listing the outstanding financial claims that the VTB group had on dozens of countries as of October 1 this year.

Somehow, in the table next to the Central African Republic was the sum of 801,933,814,000 roubles ($12bn), which is more than six times the country’s annual economic output. When asked about the data by media, the bank said the loan to the former French colony did not, in reality, exist.

“VTB bank has no exposure of this size to any foreign country. Most likely, this is a case of an operational mistake in the system when the countries were being coded,” a VTB spokesman said.

However, VTB did not say who was responsible for the mistake or how such a large figure could have been published without being spotted. There was also no indication in the data published by the Russian Central Bank of who was the recipient of the loan, the purpose of the loan, or when it was issued and on what terms.

Car government spokesman Ange Maxime Kazagui, said: “I don’t have that information but it doesn’t sound credible because $11bn is beyond the debt capacity of Car. We are members of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and when a member wants to take on debt, it has to discuss that with the IMF first”

Russia has built up security and business ties with Car over the past few years, muscling aside former colonial power France, Moscow has provided arms and contractors to the country's military and a Russian national is security advisor to President Faustin-Archange Touadera. Car is a nation of 5m people emerging from sectarian conflict, with a gross domestic product of just $1.95bn according to the World Bank.