OREANDA-NEWS The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) has initiated the selection of a contractor to work with Visa Inc. shares in order to receive funds into the bankruptcy estate of liquidated Russian banks, the DIA said in a statement.

The agency wants to sell Visa shares owned by three banks: International Industrial Bank, Uraltransbank and Stroycredit. The shares are held in a personal account with a US depository. Funds from the sale must be sent to authorized banks in the Russian Federation.

In total, three banks own 26,377 Visa Class C shares, which after conversion amount to 105,508 Class A shares (0.0061%) traded on the NYSE. According to the exchange, as of the last closing date, January 31, their value was $341.8 per paper. Thus, the DIA may receive about 3.6 billion rubles after the sale of bank packages. (calculated at the exchange rate of the Central Bank on February 4 - 99.9433 rubles/$1.) excluding dividends.

The Agency accepts applications from organizations and lawyers with experience in foreign jurisdictions and having a full-time employee or partner in the United States to interact with the depository and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

DIA, according to the documents on the website, requires confirmation of each bank's ownership of shares and dividends, conversion of Visa Inc. shares from Class C to Class A, including filling out a special tax form for the non-resident securities owner, as well as the sale of Visa Inc. shares through a depository service on one of the US exchanges with the transfer of funds funds from the sale to the bank's account in the depository and the organization of the transfer of funds from the sale of shares of Visa Inc. and dividends to the settlement account of authorized banks in Russia by order of PJSC Uraltransbank, CJSC International Industrial Bank.

In terms of Stroycredit Bank, work is required to remove OFAC restrictions and organize the transfer of funds from the bank's account opened in the depository to an authorized bank in Russia, according to the DIA materials.

The license of the International Industrial Bank was revoked in October 2010, Stroykredit in March 2014, and Uraltransbank in October 2018.

The Visa international payment system announced the suspension of operations in Russia in March 2022. Visa bank cards issued by Russian banks have stopped working abroad. At the same time, they continued to operate in Russia, as transactions on these cards are processed internally by the National Payment Card System.