State-controlled Alliance Bank, Kazakhstan's sixth-largest lender by assets, said a 105 billion tenge ($722 million) capital shortfall noted by auditors resulted from discrepancies in accounting standards, Bloomberg reported.
Under international standards, the Almaty-based bank had a capital shortage as of Dec. 31, while by Kazakh rules it had 33.8 billion tenge at its disposal, Alliance said in a statement to investors today.
"In its operations the bank is governed by capital requirements established by the local regulator," spokesman Dmitry Shishkin said in an e-mailed response to questions. "Thus the capital deficit identified by the auditor according to international standards has no impact on the bank's day-to- day operations."
KPMG Audit LLC found "material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt" on the ability of Alliance and its subsidiaries "to continue as a going concern." KPMG cited the capital shortfall and a negativity liquidity gap of 139 billion tenge as causes for concern.
Alliance, the first Kazakh lender to default in 2009, has completed restructuring $4.5 billion of debt, reducing the amount it owes to about $1 billion, the bank said in March 2010. The state-owned National Wellbeing Fund Samruk-Kazyna holds 67 percent of Alliance's ordinary shares after the reorganization.
The bank seeks to sell 119 billion tenge of corporate and small business loans, it said in the statement to investors.