Troubled Italian bank ends Irish wholesale operations
(4 May 2017 – Ireland) Italian lender, Veneto Banca, which is in the process of requesting state aid to secure its future, has liquidated its Irish wholesale banking operation, Veneto Ireland Financial Services.
According to a spokesman for the bank, the decision to close the Dublin branch came about as a result of the group’s rationalisation of its foreign subsidiaries.
The bank’s Irish branch, which closed to business in March 2016, before being liquidated in March of this year, reported operating income of around €5 million for the Irish branch as of year-end 2016, down from €47 million in the same period in 2015. The bank had assets of €435.6 million at year-end 2016.
Veneto’s main activity was engaging in a range of financial transactions, and supporting the group in implementing its financial strategies. Based in Commerzbank House in the IFSC, it employed fewer than 10 people,
Veneto Banca was bailed out by the Italian government in 2016, when a private vehicle sponsored by the government took ownership of it. It has subsequently applied for an injection of public money, a so-called “precautionary recapitalisation” by the state, a scheme already being used by troubled bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
The bank’s closure follows that of other foreign owned lenders opting to move their foreign operations back home.
Meanwhile, the city is aiming to capitalise on Brexit as firms look for a new home when the UK departs the single market.
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