International Investment Bank

Soviet era

IIB was established in 1970 under the auspices of Comecon. The agreement establishing it was signed by the member states on 10 July 1970 and registered with the UN Secretariat under number 11417. The Bank began its activities on 1 January 1971. The member states of the Bank at the time of its foundation were: the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the People's Republic of Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, the Mongolian Democratic Republic, the People's Republic of Poland, the Socialist Republic of Romania, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.

After graduating in 1975 from the Moscow Financial Institute majoring in international financial relations, Albert Nikolaevich Belichenko (Russian: Альберт Николаевич Беличенко; born 2 July 1931), who is fluent in German, served as Chairman of the Board of the International Investment Bank from 1975 until his retirement in 1993. Previously, he was a director on the three-member Board of Directors of Morgenrot AG and, from 1966 to 1969, he headed the Wozchod Handelsbank (Zurich) which was the first Soviet bank in Switzerland opening on 22 June 1966.

Post-Communist era

Shortly following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, IIB stopped operating, and its obligations to its COMECON creditors were only addressed in 2001 by the Russian Ministry of Finance.

In 2019, IIB relocated its headquarters from Moscow to Budapest. Viktor Orbán gave IIB as well as "guests, business partners, experts" EU residence and full diplomatic immunity. In 2020, the IIB acquired the historic Lánchíd Palace on a prominent location adjacent to Budapest's iconic Széchenyi Chain Bridge for its head office.

Poland was the first country to withdraw from the bank in 2000; in 2023, it is still trying to recover its €29.15 million debt.

A day after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Czech Republic announced it would speed up its planned departure from the IIB, Romania then started the process to withdraw, followed by Slovakia and then Bulgaria terminated its membership in the IIB. All would request return of funds, including capital of €134.6 million euros. It is unclear whether any of the departing countries will recover their debts from the bank, even in the long term.

The exit of most members of the bank withdrawing their investments and the cost of sanctions against the bank, including first Euroclear and then the Belgian government blocking funds in October 2022, has resulted in the bank using up its liquid reserves, putting it at risk of bankruptcy.

In January 2023 it was agreed that the capital of the bank be changed, with Russia converting some capital to debt, allowing the Czech Republic and Slovakia to withdraw their capital without Russia exceeding 50% ownership. Proposed new ownership: Russia 45,44%, Hungary 25,27%, Bulgaria 14,46%, Romania 8,94%, with Cuba, Mongolia and Vietnam holding less than 3% each.

Controversy

Connections to Russian spy operations

With the relocation of IIB's headquarters to EU member Hungary, critics raised that the bank serves as a "Trojan horse" for Russian intelligence operations and spy activities against the European Union. This claim is supported by the fact that the bank's former chief Nikolai Kosov has close ties with Russian intelligence agencies, and that his father was a KGB top operative in Budapest in the 1970s, while his mother was described as “one of the most extraordinary spies of the 20th century”. Kosov has rejected this claim.

Hungary's Russia-friendly government was also criticised for providing privileges to the IIB, including diplomatic immunity to its staff and exclusion from any regulatory supervision in Hungary. The Government of Hungary announced the withdrawal of its membership on the 13 April 2023, the withdrawal was completed on 19 October 2023.

Sanctions

In April 2023 the USA sanctioned the bank, IIB Capital and their management for potentially facilitating the evasion of U.S. sanctions against Russia. Subsequently, all correspondent banking entities of IIB in the EU blocked transactions in connection with IIB, including Bank’s nostro accounts in

Euro, United States Dollar, Hungarian Forint, Czech Koruna, and Romanian Leu.

Unpaid loans

In October 2023 the bank failed to repay two loans of 350 million lei ($70m) to five Romanian pension funds, due to accounts being blocked as a result of sanctions. Romania is asking the US for assets to be unfrozen to enable Romanian investors to be repaid their loans from the IIB Romanian issued bonds, including another repayment due shortly of 200 million lei ($40m).