Swedish bank has all licences revoked
(02 September 2010 – Europe) A Swedish Investment bank, HQ Bank, was forced into involuntary liquidation earlier in the week after the nation’s financial watchdog revoked all its licences for breach of banking regulations.
The bank, which manages around 60 billion kronor (A$8.9 billion), said that efforts to find away to keep the bank operating had failed after losing its licences on Saturday.
The bank said in a statement that as a consequence of the decision by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) to revoke all HQ Bank's licences, the board of HQ Bank has during the weekend actively sought a private solution with a party holding an existing banking licence that would allow the operations to continue.
An almost completely agreed solution with such a party has proven impossible to implement, HQ Bank added.
It added that its board had approved the liquidator proposed by FI, lawyer Bioern Riese, and would support him during his work.
On Saturday, FI announced it had revoked HQ Bank AB's license because it had breached Swedish legislation and demonstrated serious deficiencies in its trading operations.
The bank has grossly breached the most central provisions of Swedish legislation, the authority said, adding that the decision would have no impact on (overall) financial stability.
FI said HQ Bank had overvalued its trading portfolio for a long time and that its financial position was reported inaccurately.
The regulator said that a correct valuation would have shown that HQ Bank had been undercapitalised since December 2008.
The bank said in a statement that as a consequence of the decision by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) to revoke all HQ Bank's licences, the board of HQ Bank has during the weekend actively sought a private solution with a party holding an existing banking licence that would allow the operations to continue.
An almost completely agreed solution with such a party has proven impossible to implement, HQ Bank added.
It added that its board had approved the liquidator proposed by FI, lawyer Bioern Riese, and would support him during his work.
On Saturday, FI announced it had revoked HQ Bank AB's license because it had breached Swedish legislation and demonstrated serious deficiencies in its trading operations.
The bank has grossly breached the most central provisions of Swedish legislation, the authority said, adding that the decision would have no impact on (overall) financial stability.
FI said HQ Bank had overvalued its trading portfolio for a long time and that its financial position was reported inaccurately.
The regulator said that a correct valuation would have shown that HQ Bank had been undercapitalised since December 2008.
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