Russian Amsterdam Trade Bank declared bankrupt due to sanctions

The Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), a Dutch subsidiary of the Russian Alfa Bank, has been declared bankrupt. The bank's thousands of customers can get their savings back up to 100,000 euros through the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme.

The bank itself submitted an application for bankruptcy, which was subsequently granted by the court in Amsterdam. British and American sanctions ultimately proved fatal to the bank, according to curator Toni van Hees. For example, software suppliers could no longer do business with ATB due to the sanctions, making it very difficult to continue banking. In addition, the large Dutch banks refused to carry out payment orders from ATB, regulator De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) wrote to the Ministry of Finance.

Earlier this week, there were already signals that a change was about to happen at ATB. Het Financieele Dagblad the bank was trying to approach investors. Van Hees said that attempts had been made to find a solution to the problems through the sanctions.

The bank has 23,000 private account holders, nearly 6,000 of whom live in Germany, according to DNB. Bank balances of account holders at ATB are protected up to an amount of 100,000 euros. In total, customers will receive 700 million euros through the guarantee system. Under certain conditions, customers who purchase investment services from the bank can receive a maximum refund of 20,000 euros.

ATB has been in existence since 1994 and, according to the bank's own website, it employs about 150 people. Its parent company, Alfa Bank, is a large Russian bank founded by Russians Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman. They are on the sanctions list of the European Union because they belong to the circle of Putin confidants.

Fridman has an interest in ATB between 25 and 50 percent, according to a register of the Chamber of Commerce. Due to ATB's Russian roots, DNB tightened its supervision of the bank from February. For example, the supervisor asked the bank located in the Amsterdam Zuidas for extra guarantees that the sanctions would be properly observed.

This meant, among other things, that ATB was no longer allowed to trade with its own shareholder Fridman and other sanctioned owners. The shareholders were also placed at a distance from the day-to-day management of ATB.