8 August 2014

FBME Limited, the holding company of FBME Bank, regrets the decision of the High Court in Nicosia not to grant an interim injunction to forbid the sale of the Cyprus branch of the Bank. The company will explore other avenues to challenge this sale which it describes as a hostile takeover.

FBME opposes a sale of the Cyprus branch which it considers a hasty and ill-conceived response to the US Department of Treasury’s FinCEN report issued on 17 July. Such a sale does nothing to protect the Bank’s depositors or dampen risks of contagion, as claimed.
FBME is working with legal counsel and forensic accountants in the USA to conduct a comprehensive review of its anti-money laundering programme. Any attempt by the Cypriot authorities to sell the branch appears to be a move to prevent this investigation from being completed.
The review is required to address issues raised in the FinCEN announcement of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and a Notice of Findings.
The Bank’s financial position remains sound and fully in line with capital adequacy and solvency requirements of the European Central Bank. At the time of the announcement by the US Department of Treasury its short term liquidity ratio at 104% was sufficient to cover deposits.
FBME Limited added that it is disappointed that, after three weeks in position, the Special Administrator has still not taken action to dispel the damaging misrepresentation that FBME lacks any correspondent banking relationships. FBME does have correspondent banks.