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Sberbank Europe AG has wound down all its banking business – banking licence lapsed with legal effect on 15 December 2022 – Government Commissioner stood down

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On 15 December 2022, Sberbank Europe AG in Liquidation notified as was duly confirmed by the external auditor that all of its banking business had been wound down, and that it was therefore formally relinquishing its banking licence. The entity’s banking licence therefore lapsed with legal effect on that date. The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) immediately informed the European Central Bank (ECB) and initiated the necessary concluding steps. Furthermore, the FMA also stood down the government commissioner, Dr. Gerd Konezny, that it had appointed at ECB’s instruction to Sberbank Europe on 1 March 2022.

The FMA’s Executive Board Members, Helmut Ettl and Eduard Müller remarked, “the decisive action of Austria’s banking supervision and the seamless cooperation with the European institutions has meant that the most complex resolution case for a bank in the European Union has been able to be concluded successfully. Insolvency proceedings were avoided, and the bank was able to be removed from the market without a shock to financial market stability, while also ensuring the greatest possible protection for customers. The Austrian deposit guarantee system also proved itself in this difficult situation, with savers and retail investors being reimbursed quickly, and with the deposit guarantee scheme also recovering all of the financial means that it had made available during the course of the resolution.

Sberbank Europa AG, with its registered office in Vienna, serviced approximately 775,000 customers via its 3,800 staff members and eight subsidiary banks in Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe, and had total assets of approximately € 13.5 billion. As a result of the geopolitical and economic impact of the Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, it suffered such massive liquidity outflows that the FMA was forced to prohibit the bank’s continuation of business operations with immediate effect on 01 March 2022. At the same time, a government commissioner was appointed to protect the financial interests of creditors and to safeguard the assets that had been entrusted to the supervised entity.

Journalists may address further enquiries to:

Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)

+43 0 676 88249516

+43 (0)1 249 59 – 6006