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Netherlands: A bank affiliated with the Russian group Alfa Group went bankrupt

Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), which is affiliated with the Russian group Alfa Group, has been declared bankrupt by the Amsterdam district court, as it could not make payments due to Western sanctions against Moscow, reports Bloomberg.

The court on Friday declared the lender bankrupt, with the central bank activating the deposit guarantee for account holders. The ATB said in a statement that it had filed for bankruptcy.

ATB was not subject to European Union sanctions, but “British and US sanctions have caused problems with the bank’s payment system,” a court-appointed board spokesman said by telephone. “The bank could no longer make payments.”

“Sanctions in the United Kingdom and the United States have caused operational difficulties, as most ATB counterparties, including their respective banks, find it difficult to continue to support it,” the bank said in a statement on its website.

According to the Dutch central bank, ATB operated 23,000 private accounts, most of which were based in the Netherlands, with around 6,000 customers living in Germany. ATB, which has been operating in the Netherlands since 1994, had assets of more than 1.2 billion euros, according to a 2020 report.

The central bank said it would pay ATB’s account holders a maximum of 100,000 euros per person. There is an additional guarantee for money in accounts that are temporarily kept in relation to the purchase and sale of privately owned house, up to a maximum of 500,000 euros.

The amount guaranteed by the deposit guarantee scheme is about 700m euros, according to the central bank. The Dutch deposit guarantee fund had assets of over 3 billion euros at the end of 2021.

The Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad reported earlier on Friday that the bank’s management, in which the sanctioned billionaire Michael Friedman had invested through Alfa Group, was considering selling ATB. The FD also reported that some Dutch banks were stopping trading with ATB and depositors did not have access to their money.

The Dutch banks ING and Rabobank confirmed the freezing of transactions with ATB in Bloomberg on Friday.

Source: Capital

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