Today, the Latvian banking sector has been alerted by the news that the Board of the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) in Latvia has decided to suspend the provision of financial services at Baltic International Bank SE. The meeting of the Board was held yesterday, 12 December 2022, and the decision was made in order to ensure the stability of Latvia’s financial sector and protect the interests of the bank’s customers and creditors.
The decision comes into force starting from 12.12.2022 at 18:00 Latvian time.
What does it mean for the customers?
This means that from 12.12.2022 at 18:00 Latvian time, the operation of Baltic International Bank SE payment cards, internet banking, and payments has been suspended.
Why did FCMC decide to do it?
The FCMC has based its decision to recognise Baltic International Bank SE as failing or likely to fail on the grounds that the bank has not been able to ensure the implementation of a viable business strategy over a sustained period. The current business strategy does not conform to the bank’s capacity and is not feasible, therefore the bank has been continuously failing to provide a profitable business model.
The bank also has serious internal governance deficiencies, including the area of the prevention of money laundering and terrorism, and proliferation financing.
Despite the efforts of the FCMC to make improvements in these areas, the bank has not ensured compliance of its activities with the regulatory requirements governing the activities of credit institutions, as well as continues the current trend: the bank operates at a loss, is unable to restore profitability, fails to ensure an adequate internal control system and a stable future vision.
If you are a customer of Baltic International Bank…
…please be advised that, in accordance with the Latvian Deposit Guarantee Law, disbursement of compensation of up to 100,000 EUR is guaranteed for any customer.
If your assets held in the bank are up to the above amount, then you will receive your deposits back in full. The disbursement of guaranteed compensation shall be started no later than seven working days after the day when deposits have become unavailable.
As per the applicable law, the FCMC will announce its decision on the unavailability of funds within 5 working days. So, those who have the deposits of more than 100,000 Euro should check further announcements of FCMC which should not be later than 16 December 2022.
In addition, FCMC will hold a press conference today on 13 December 2022. We will update our customers as soon as we have any available information.
We closely monitor the situation and will update our clients on further decisions to be made. If you are a customer of the Baltic International Bank, please contact us if you have any further questions.
