Nemea Bank still owes customers €13.2 million in deposits held at the shuttered bank, a 2019 report by audit firm PwC tabled in Parliament shows.
PwC was appointed to take over the running of the online bank in 2016 after regulators found serious shortcomings in the way Nemea was being administered.
Former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi was a director of the bank at the time.
When PwC came into the fray as administrators in April 2016, Nemea held €62 million worth of client deposits.
A year later, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) triggered the depositor compensation scheme as Nemea was deemed unable to repay all its liabilities.
Individual depositors were eligible to compensation of up to €100,000.
A total of €35 million was paid out to the bank’s customers under the scheme.
In a recent decision based on a complaint by former AD chairman Arnold Cassola, Ombudsman Anthony Mifsud ordered the MFSA to ensure PwC regularly updates depositors and any other party with an interest in the bank’s current situation.
Prof. Cassola was told in October 2018 that the bank’s financial position remained “precarious”, with Nemea’s liabilities exceeding assets.
Individual depositors were eligible to compensation of up to €100,000
No further update was ever received from the MFSA by Prof. Cassola about his trapped funds.
According to PwC’s report, Nemea’s accumulated losses stood at €12.6 million as at June 2019.
During the same period, the bank had assets of €45 million and liabilities of €48.89.
The bank’s liquidation has been stalled pending legal appeals against the shuttering of the bank.
Under PwC’s control, the bank has in turn opened a number of legal battles to recover several million in defaulted loans.
Nemea is one of three banks currently under the control of an MFSA-appointed administrator.
Pilatus Bank had its licence pulled by the ECB in November 2018 and remains under the control of administrator Lawrence Connell. The bank’s owner and former chairman Ali Sadr awaits trial in the US on money-laundering and sanction-busting charges. He contests the charges.
Satabank was placed under EY’s control in October 2018 after mounting concerns about the bank’s anti-money laundering controls led to regulatory action.
EY has since identified €131 million worth of suspicious transactions that took place at the bank.
Satabank’s licence has not been revoked by the FIAU slapped it with a record €3 million fine, which is being appealed.