Smear campaign against Norwegian-Russian bank
A dissatisfied customer recently covered downtown Murmansk with large advertisements claiming that DnB NOR Monchebank stole his money. The bank has initiated legal proceedings to protect its business reputation.
Two weeks ago roadside banners in Murmansk were covered with the slogan “DnB NOR Monchebank – the bank where we lost our money”.
Behind this stood the Murmansk advertising agency Propaganda Kolokol, web site Barentsnova.com writes. The reason for the episode was the transfer of some 15.200 EUR from the company’s account in the bank to an external personal account in Moscow. A day after the transaction, the company appealed to the bank to cancel the money transfer referring to a mistake. The transfer was done electronically with a proper digital signature, thus the bank had no reason to cancel, freeze or reimburse the transaction.
Investigations showed that the client had neglected safety measures working with on-line payment systems and the police did not reveal any fault behind the bank, Barentsnova writes.
- The incident with the roadside banners has given us quite a deal of extra work, Bjørn Celius at DnB NOR Monchebank in Murmansk tells BarentsObserver. - We have had to explain our business customers and bank connections about the situation.
According to Mr. Celius, the Head of teh regional branch of the Russian Central Bank supports DnBNor Monchebank in the case.
- It is our bank’s policy that the customer should not lose his money if a mistake has been made, so it is sad when a customer chooses to show his dissatisfaction in this way, Celuis says. DnB NOR Monchebank intends to solve this case in a careful, orderly way, he adds.
According to B-port.com, DnB NOR Monchebank has raised a claim to Murmansk regional Arbitration Court against Propaganda Kolokol to protect its business reputation. The preliminary court session will be held on April 28.
DnB NOR has been represented with a local office in Murmansk city since 1999. In 2005 the bank bought the Murmansk regional Monchebank for 21 million USD, BarentsObserver reported. Monchebank had 3000 corporate clients and 50.000 private clients and was among the biggest banks in Murmansk Oblast.
