Guaranteed deposits paid out to 604 ABLV Bank’s clients in first two days

RIGA - EUR 9.5 million worth of guaranteed deposits have been paid out to 604 ABLV Bank’s clients in first two days since the payouts began, Ieva Praulina, a spokeswoman for Citadele Bank, told LETA.

Citadele Bank has been paying out the guaranteed deposits to ABLV Bank’s clients since last Saturday, March 3.

As reported, shareholders of ABLV Bank at an extraordinary meeting on Monday made a decision to start the liquidation process in order to protect interests of its clients and creditors. ABLV Bank believes that in this way it will be possible to ensure active protection of its customers, the bank said in a statement.

LETA also reported that the Latvian financial regulator, the Finance and Capital Market Commission, acting on the instructions from the European Central Bank (ECB), has ordered ABLV Bank to stop all payments as of February 19 following a report by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of Treasury about ABLV Bank's involvement in international money laundering schemes and corruption. On February 24, the Finance and Capital Market Commission made a decision on occurrence of unavailability of deposits at ABLV Bank.

At the end of September 2017, ABLV Bank was the third largest bank in Latvia by assets. The bank's majority shareholders Olegs Fils, Ernests Bernis and Nika Berne own, directly and indirectly, 87.03 percent of the bank's share capital.