Amsterdam Trade Bank, part of Russia's Alfa Bank, declared bankrupt

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM – Amsterdam Commerce Financial institution (ATB), a subsidiary of Russia’s Alfa Financial institution, has been declared bankrupt, the Dutch central financial institution (DNB) stated on Friday, citing an Amsterdam District Courtroom Ruling.

An announcement on the DNB web site stated ATB depositors could be coated as much as 100,000 euros ($108,000) every below the Netherlands’ deposit assure system. The financial institution had round 23,000 clients, of whom most are Dutch however 6,000 are German, the DNB stated.

Based on filings on the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, the financial institution’s final helpful proprietor is Mikhail Fridman, the Russian-Israeli billionaire who's contesting Western sanctions imposed on him following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His stake in ATB was stated to be greater than 25% however not more than 50%.

Alfa Financial institution is topic to U.S. sanctions, however has not been focused by the European Union.

ATB itself had not been sanctioned, however Dutch monetary newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad (FD) reported that depositors started to panic on Thursday.

In an announcement on its web site, ATB confirmed it had requested and been granted chapter. The financial institution stated that U.S. and British sanctions had “prompted operational difficulties, as the vast majority of ATB‘s counterparties, together with corresponding banks … discover it troublesome to proceed supporting ATB.”

The FD newspaper had beforehand reported that ATB‘s house owners had been searching for to promote the financial institution and depositors found that different European banks had been unwilling to just accept transfers out of ATB for concern of falling foul of sanctions.

The small financial institution had beforehand been identified for commerce financing however had sought lately to grow to be a lender to small and medium dimension firms.

Based on its 2020 annual report, the latest on file on the Chamber of Commerce, ATB had belongings of round 1.2 billion euros and fairness of 174 million euros. It made a revenue of 27 million euros that 12 months.

($1 = 0.9270 euros)