Satabank account holders could soon get repaid
Plan to release €70m in funds approved
A plan to pay around €70 million to Satabank’s depositors and creditors has been approved, the bank’s controller has announced.
Depositors have been seeking access to their funds ever since the bank was shuttered by regulators in 2018 due to widespread failures to prevent financial crime.
The bank’s licence was revoked, and it was fined €3.7 million by the FIAU, an anti-money laundering body. The fine was later reduced to €851,000 by an appeals court.
All 12,000 of Satabank’s accounts were effectively frozen as a result of the regulatory action. This kicked off a lengthy process to comb through suspicious transactions that passed through the bank for potential links with criminal activity.
A public report by the FIAU laid out how Satabank “blindly” took on a portfolio of clients from another financial institution in 2015 without assessing the money-laundering risks involved.
A review of client portfolios at Satabank revealed “gross deficiencies” in relation to Maltese anti-money laundering and terrorism financing laws.
The FIAU said these lax safeguards exposed not only the bank to money-laundering risks but the country as a whole, as Satabank serviced various financial intermediaries and enablers who used the bank to transfer “significant volumes of monies”.
In 2022, Satabank’s liquidator formally advised all of the bank’s depositors and creditors to verify the amount owed to them. The liquidation process hit a snag the following year, over concerns that new tax claims could be raised against the bank by Inland Revenue.
The amounts due to creditors vary wildly, from a few euros to over €10 million to an e-wallet company.
Satabank was the second bank to be shuttered in 2018. Another financial institution, Pilatus Bank, was also shuttered by regulators over financial crime concerns. Some €147 million in client funds are still frozen at Pilatus.