62 major investors had sued the Republic, the total of the claims amount to more than 1 billion euros. The current verdict relates to the administrative liability action brought by the consulting firm msg Plaut for EUR 1.2 million.
The plaintiff had accused the economic and corruption prosecutor’s office and the Eisenstadt public prosecutor’s office of not having adequately checked the first whistleblower report regarding Commerzialbank in 2015 and not having initiated preliminary proceedings.
Wolfgang Peschorn, President of the Finanzprokuratur, was pleased with the decision in an interview with the APA on Tuesday and said it was “of great importance because the Supreme Court made it unmistakably clear what the Republic is liable for in banking supervision”. With its decision, the Supreme Court followed the courts of first and second instance and the arguments of the Finanzprokuratur. The state is liable for misconduct on the part of the banking supervisory authority – i.e. the financial market supervisory authority and the National Bank – only towards the supervised entities, i.e. banks or insurance companies, but not for damage to investors and depositors. According to Peschorn, the OGH decision is “very good news” for the taxpayer, since the 62 lawsuits and 72 letters of formal notice have meant a total risk of 1.2 billion euros and the risk of the state is also limited in future cases.
According to the Ö1 report, the OGH decided that no official liability can be derived from the actions of the four authorities, namely the financial market supervisory authority, the national bank auditor, the economic and corruption prosecutor’s office and the Eisenstadt public prosecutor’s office. Not even as far as the selection of the bank auditor is concerned – whereby the province of Burgenland, which had appointed the auditor for the cooperative – the owner of the bank – is not liable for it.
The state of Burgenland “of course takes note of the verdict,” said lawyer Johannes Zink in a statement to APA. “However, it is unfortunate for all savers who previously thought that the FMA and the ÖNB would take care of their money. This is obviously not the case.” His criticism is not aimed at the judiciary, but at the legislature, who is leaving savers out in the cold and “covering up for the inadequate work of the supervisory authorities”. A reform of banking supervision is therefore urgently needed, according to Zink. ÖVP state party chairman Christian Sagartz said in a broadcast about the verdict: “This is a slap in the face to the injured bank customers, but the SPÖ shares responsibility for the fact that it could come to this.”
Source: Nachrichten
