“Taskombank” closes the “sportbank” project

The board of “Taskombank” decided to stop the development and further work of the “sportbank” project.

This was reported by the bankʼs press service.

From April 17, 2024, “sportbank” will stop attracting new customers and ordering products through the application. And from May 12, its application will become unavailable.

The main reason for the closure of “sportbank” is called "significant changes in the external environment, which require the adjustment of the bankʼs business model and its strategy as a whole." In the future, “Taskombank” will focus on the development of its own projects.

Since “sportbank” operates under the license of “Taskombank”, the bank will continue to serve its customers. The “Taskombank” advises users to use the program of convenient transition to the terms of further service or to choose other bank products. Starting from April 17, all services will be available in the TAS2U application.

What preceded

The “sportbank” began operating in 2019 as a separate product licensed by “Taskombank”. One of its features was targeting an audience related to sports. It was for the purchase of sports goods and the order of sports services that customers could receive bonuses and discounts, cashback.

According to Ukrainian Forbes, sportbank is a project of former “Parimatch” top manager Nikita Izmailov. In January 2024, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) searched the projectʼs office and the residences of its employees. The accounts of the companies operating the project were seized. Detectives were looking for evidence of treason. The “sportbank” rejected all these accusations and considered them unfounded.

The case significantly worsened the situation of the “sportbank”. Since 2021, “sportbank” has been working on the basis of “Taskombank”, but now the partnership has actually ended — since the fall of 2023, the “sportbank” has been looking for a new base financial institution. The partner was found, but the signing of the cooperation agreement failed due to searches and arrests.

In March 2024, law enforcement officers reported that they did not see any violations of the law in the activities of the “sportbank” and its founders. The SBI reported that the verification of the “sportbank” involvement in the possible commission of crimes was indeed carried out, but within the scope of the investigation into other persons.