Today, 30 July 2021, the FMA has completely prohibited AutoBank AG with its registered office at Gertrude-Fröhlich-Sandner-Straße 3, 1100 Vienna, from continuing business operations with immediate effect by means of an emergency administrative decision. Consequently an official payment stop of covered deposits occurred, so that in particular no further deposits, withdrawals or transfers can be conducted. This triggered the deposit guarantee pay out event: Einlagensicherung AUSTRIA Ges.m.b.H. is required within ten working days to pay out to every depositor of this bank an amount that is equal to the amount of their covered deposits.
Covered deposits are eligible deposits (such as credit balances on current accounts, salary accounts, student accounts and pension accounts or deposits held in savings books and saving accounts) up to an amount of EUR 100 000 or the equivalent amount in a foreign currency per depositor.
Under certain conditions an amount of up to € 500,000 may be repaid: namely in the case of the deposit held at the bank:
- results from a real estate transaction in conjunction with privately used residential property,
- is linked to legally prescribed social purposes, in conjunction with particular life events of the depositor – such as marriage, divorce, retirement, dismissal, redundancy, invalidity or death,
- or relates on the payment of insurance benefits or compensation for criminal injuries or wrongful conviction.
A pre-requisite for this larger repayment amount is that this deposit was not paid into the bank more than twelve months prior to the deposit guarantee pay out event. This increased amount will however only be repaid once an application has been made to do so, which is required to be made within twelve months to the deposit guarantee scheme following the occurrence of the pay-out event.
Einlagensicherung AUSTRIA Ges.m.b.H is already working closing together with AutoBank AG to organise an orderly pay-out to be made in the next few days.
Affected depositors may also contact Einlagensicherung AUSTRIA Ges.m.b.H by telephone or by e-mail:
Service Hotline: 0800 150 202
Website: https://www.einlagensicherung.at
It was necessary to prohibit the continuation of business operations as well as to appoint the external auditor Dorotea-E. Rebmann as an expert supervisor (government commissioner) of the credit institution in order to protect the interests of creditors, due to the orderly run-down of banking business passed by resolution at the extraordinary general meeting of AutoBank AG held on 29 January 2021 and the subsequent relinquishing of its banking licence pursuant to Article 7 para. 3 of the Austrian Banking Act (BWG; Bankwesengesetz) having failed.