By selling its loan receivables to other financial institutions, Sberbank Europe, which operates from Vienna with an Austrian license, can repay the high three-digit million sums to Einlagensicherung Austria (ESA) with which it compensated affected customers. So far, the ESA had paid out over 900 million euros.
120 victims in Austria
In March, ESA expected to have to pay 947 million euros for covered deposits. The security case of Sberbank Europe mainly affected German customers: 34,800 private customers in Germany had their money with the online subsidiary “Sberbank Direct” – citizenship is irrelevant for securing the assets. In Austria, only around 120 customers were affected.
On April 21, a special meeting of shareholders of Sberbank Europe AG decided on the dissolution and liquidation of the bank, which is already entered in the company register. The Management Board was authorized to sell assets and receivables. According to information from Tuesday evening, it has now been possible to sell essential packages so that the ESA can be served immediately as a preferred creditor.
BAWAG as buyer
The buyers of the loan receivables packages from Sberbank Europe are said to be primarily BAWAG, but also Deniz Bank, Anadi Bank and Kommunalkredit. The government commissioner – the Viennese auditor and lawyer Gerd Konezny – approved the resolution and liquidation plan for Sberbank Europe AG iA on Tuesday. Proper processing of Sberbank Europe is now possible by the end of the year, according to informed circles on Tuesday evening.
Sberbank Europe got into trouble as a result of the strong outflow of funds after the start of the Ukraine war and the subsequent sanctions against Russia. On March 1, the supervisory authorities banned business operations with immediate effect, including the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA). This triggered the legal deposit insurance case.
Since autumn, sales processes have been running for some countries in which Sberbank Europe was represented with subsidiaries from Vienna. The three euro zone countries Austria, Slovenia and Croatia were subject to the ECB banking supervision regime – but not the Czech Republic and Hungary as EU countries or Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska as third countries.
Source: Nachrichten
