ABLV Bank

The bank was founded on September 17, 1993 on the basis of the regional branch of the Bank of Latvia in the city of Aizkraukle , therefore it was originally called “Aizkraukles banka”.

Way to the top three largest banks in Latvia

In 1995, changes occurred in the composition of its shareholders: Ernest Bernis and Oleg Fil became the new shareholders and managers of the bank, and since then they have worked only in the banking sector. In 1995, the bank began to expand its activities: its branch was opened in Riga .

In subsequent years, the bank actively worked in the field of servicing foreign customers. Offering them a variety of banking products, mainly related to settlements.

In 2002, the AB.LV trademark was created. Its design, as well as the design of the bank’s homepage, was performed by Artemy Lebedev Studio ^[1] .

In 2004, the bank directed its efforts towards the development of the second of its main areas of activity - investment management. An investment management company and a brokerage investment company were established: IPAS AB.LV Asset Management ^[2] and IBAS AB.LV Capital Markets ^[3] .

In 2008, the bank adopted a new strategy, focusing on the development of individual financial solutions for customers. Since 2009, the bank has been offering customers a third group of services: consultations on the protection and structuring of assets.

In 2011, the bank changed its name to ABLV Bank ^[4] . The new brand and name of the bank was developed with the aim of strengthening associations with the chosen line of business and strengthening the bank's reputation at the international level, while maintaining continuity with the previous brand. A bank bond issue program has been launched.

In 2012, a subsidiary of ABLV Bank Luxembourg, SA obtained a banking license in Luxembourg ^[5] .

In 2013, ABLV Bank celebrated its 20th anniversary, and a representative office was opened in Cyprus. Euromoney magazine recognized ABLV Bank as the best bank in Latvia ^[6] .

In 2014, ABLV Bank became a member of the Unified Banking Supervision System and fell under the direct supervision of the European Central Bank, remaining also under the supervision of a national regulator — the Financial and Capital Market Commission.

In 2015, exploring new target regions, ABLV opened a new representative office - in the global financial center of Hong Kong.

In 2016, the export support movement The Red Jackets recognized the bank as one of the best Latvian exporting brands. In terms of assets and turnover, the bank was one of the three largest in Latvia after the Scandinavian Swedbank and SEB. Bonds of ABLV Bank were quoted on the list of securities of the Nasdaq Riga stock exchange.

Bank Destruction

On February 13, 2018 , the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Department of Treasury (FINCEN) issued a statement with a variety of allegations against ABLV, ranging from suspicions of aiding money laundering and avoiding currency control to assisting North Korea in implementation of its nuclear program ^[7] . Despite the fact that the “accused” had the right to reasonably reply within 60 days, which was done in April 2018 by FinCEN, on February 24, 2018 the European Central Bank (ECB) stated that ABLV would be liquidated in accordance with laws Latvia.

The Latvian authorities did nothing to protect the largest bank with national capital, while Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola and Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis hastened to declare that the liquidation of the bank would not harm the economy ^[8] ; at the same time, the Luxembourg Commercial Court rejected the Luxembourg regulator's request for liquidation of ABLV Bank Luxembourg ^[9] .

A lawyer from the American branch of the international company WimerHale , attracted by the bank, said that FinCEN not only could not prove the charges against the Latvian bank, but did not even study the money laundering prevention system created by the bank and ignored its significant improvements in recent years. The bank’s response on 34 pages contained more than 170 references to US law, court decisions, Congress materials, bank internal documents and other documents. The letter was signed by David Cohen, former CIA Deputy Director and Comptroller of FinCEN, now a WilmerHale partner ^[10] .

After the suspension of the license, the bank's shareholders decided to self-liquidate the bank, although insolvency administrators and lawyers claimed to participate in the process, which promised them a big jackpot - more than 40 applications were submitted to the Securities and Capital Market Commission ^[11] .

The publicist Sandris Tochs , who conducted an independent investigation into the consequences of the FinCEN statement, drew attention to strange signals from the Ministry of Finance: his parliamentary secretary said that it was possible not to allow the bank to self-destruct. “You should not be surprised if in the near future the flow of information will flow with one goal - to undermine the reputation of the owners of ABLV Bank in order to create an opinion that they cannot be trusted to liquidate it,” suggested S. Tochs, recalling that the public wonders why “ they killed ”a fairly healthy Latvian enterprise with almost a thousand workers just because someone on another continent expressed some vague suspicions ^[11] .

A year after these events, the head of the financial regulator (Capital Market Control Commission), Pēteris Putni заявилš, said in an interview with journalist Sandris Točs: “Our goal is to achieve the FinCen message of 13.02. 2018 was recalled. ” He acknowledged that non-residents' deposits that had left Latvia (and their outflow amounted to billions of euros) went to Estonia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, the USA, Cyprus, Malta and so on ^[12] .

The controlling stake in the bank belongs to Ernest Bernis (43%) and Oleg Fil (43%), who for many years have been involved in the list of millionaires of Latvia , and in 2012 they headed it ^[13] .

The remaining shareholders of the bank are its senior management, employees and long-standing partners and customers.

At the time of the liquidation, the ABLV group consisted of several companies: ABLV Bank, ABLV Bank Luxembourg, ABLV Asset Management, ABLV Capital Markets, ABLV Corporate Services, ABLV Consulting Services, Pillar Holding Company, etc. Financial indicators as of December 31, 2016:

• ABLV Bank net profit amounted to 79.3 million EUR;
• total deposits in ABLV Bank reached 2.90 billion EUR;
• ABLV Bank's assets amounted to EUR 3.75 billion.

The ABLV group had representative offices in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Luxembourg.

ABLV Bank was a member of the Association of Commercial Banks of Latvia .

Euromoney - one of the most influential and authoritative publications in the banking and investment sector - recognized ABLV Bank as the best bank in Latvia (Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2013).

Activities

ABLV Bank provided a wide range of banking products and services: cash management services, payment cards, remote account management, loans, documentary operations, fiduciary transactions, safes.

ABLV Group provided investment management and brokerage services, namely: deposits, asset management, brokerage services, securities custody.

Providing consulting services, ABLV Group offered clients legal and tax solutions for asset protection and effective asset management: asset protection, charitable foundations, commercial enterprises, legal advice, tax advice, administrative services.

The main office of ABLV Bank was located in the so-called "quiet center" of Riga , in a tenement house made in art nouveau and dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. The building was authored by architect-engineer Hilbig, and the facade design was completed by architect Gizeke. In 2004, after the reconstruction, the ABLV Bank administrative building received the Latvian “Best Building 2004” award in the “Reconstruction” nomination.

• Bank official website