Troubles with ABLV Bank in Latvia: help of a lawyer
Do you have a bank account at ABLV Bank in Latvia and you are worried about the lastest news regarding the confidence of its position in the Latvian market? We can help guide you through the main aspects of the situation that occurred with regards to the 3rd biggest Latvian banks by assets.
A brief overview of the situation that happened
Recently the US Treasury Department has adopted a decision to prohibit Latvian ABLV bank to use its correspondence accounts opened within American financial institutions. This decision essentially blocks the possibility of the Latvian bank to provide operations in US dollars. Such a decision was adopted as a result of the investigation conducted by US authorities regarding the violations of the sanctions concerning on North Korea. In addition to that, the representatives of the bank were accused of corruption ties with Russian and Ukrainian businesses acting as a hub for post-Soviet countries’ money flow to European and the US markets and financial institutions.
This news has shaken the whole Latvian bank sector and has led to the huge outflow of assets from ABLV Bank in Latvia equaling to more than 600 million euros. Many creditors of the bank launched a “rush” from the bank.
As a measure of prevention of further deterioration of the situation, the European Central Bank has instructed Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission to “freeze” all payment operations conducted by ABLV. The decision was implemented on Monday, 19th of February and now clients of the bank are not able to make payments through their debit and credit cards as well as conduct any bank transfers.
All this turbulence in the banking sector has led to the head of the Bank of Latvia, Ilmars Rimsevics, who is also an ECB representative of Latvia, being detained as a result of corruption accusations.
In addition, ABLV Bank in Latvia requested to receive 480 million EUR as a loan in exchange for security pledge, but the Bank of Latvia was only willing to provide 97 million EUR.
However, it is worth mentioning that the official ABLV Bank in Latvia representatives denied all the accusations in various acts of corruption and violation of sanctions on North Korea and will now have 6 months to submit their detailed view of a the situation.
In the light of all the recent bad news and accusations before the biggest privately held bank in Latvia, the whole national bank system has suffered a decrease of credibility from foreign clients and creditors. Notwithstanding all the hype around this situation, it is better to maintain patience untill the investigation conducted by the Bank of Latvia, ECB and the US Treasury Department in this regard is completed and all the dust is settled. Only at that point it will be possible to draw reasonable and signifigant conclusions.
In such regard, the value of a professional legal assistance is extremely high. Our team of qualified lawyers can always help and consult you on all the relevant legal matters that can arise while opening a bank account, conducting bank transfer operations and using various other bank services, please contact our English speaking lawyers at info@gencs.eu.
T: +371 67 240 090
F: +371 67 240 091