Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) – Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), a Russian subsidiary, was declared bankrupt by the Dutch central bank (DNB). The Dutch District Court Ruling was cited.

A DNB website statement said that ATB depositors could be insured up to 100,000 euro ($108,000 per person) through the Netherlands’ deposit insurance system. According to the DNB, there were around 23,000. Most of these customers are Dutch, but some 6,000 are German.

The Dutch Chamber of Commerce has filed documents that show Mikhail Fridman is the ultimate beneficiary of the bank. This Russian-Israeli billionaire is challenging Western sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to reports, his stake in ATB was more than 25% and not more than 50%.

Alfa Bank has been subject to U.S. sanction, but not by the European Union.

ATB had not yet been approved, however Het Financieele Dagblad (FD), reported that ATB depositors started to panic on Thursday.

ATB stated that it requested bankruptcy and was granted. ATB stated that the U.S. and British sanction had created operational difficulties as the majority ATB’s counterparties including banks with corresponding bank accounts, find it difficult to continue supporting ATB.

The FD newspaper previously reported ATB’s owner wanted to sell the bank. Furthermore, depositors found that European banks would not accept ATB transfer requests out of fear of being subject to sanctions.

The bank, which was formerly known as a trade lender, has been rebranded to be able to loan to medium and small-sized businesses.

ATB reported assets of approximately 1.2 Billion Euros and equity of about 174 M euros in its 2020 Annual Report, which was the latest available from the Chamber of Commerce. In that same year, it made 27 million euro in profit.

($1 = 0.9270 euros)