AREB is the one who should be “purged”: scammed clients

Two and a half years later, no proof has been found that the operations of the Banca Privada de Andorra (BPA) were involved in illegal proceedings. In spite of that, the clients are still awaiting the reimbursement of their frozen assets, 190 million euros according to official estimations, consisting of deposits and fixed income. As for the State Agency for Resolution of Banking Institutions of Andorra (AREB), they have shown no interest in closing this dark chapter in international banking.

Upholding the clients’ claims, in light of several irregularities concerning the process, the Court of Andorra requested the AREB to provide the BPA accounts revision report by PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC). The ruling was issued on February 6, considering that AREB failed to communicate to the clients the results of their accounts analysis, and whether they qualified or not for a transfer to Vall Banc, leaving them defenseless. This might have been what cost Christoph Lieber his head, resigning “voluntarily” on February 20 from his position as Vice-President of the Management Council of Vall Banc.

Now, the AREB will have to properly notify the clients whether they are eligible or not for transferring to Vall Banc, providing the before mentioned PwC report. From the rulings that were issued, three of them were in favor of the clients, based on the AREB’s lack of compliance with international standards in regards to confidentiality and clients’ protection of their savings.

The AREB, whose Management Council is led by Albert Hinojosa Besoli, has been sued since November 2016 by the affected clients for not transferring their funds to Vall Blanc and keeping them totally in the dark about it. The creation of a “good bank” with the “legitimate” assets and liabilities of the BPA may have a mysterious background, considering that the AREB has consistently refused to enter in operational agreements in order to facilitate a more speedy solution to the stranded assets.

According to an analysis of the last resolution of AREB’s Management Council from October 27 2017, where the gradual transfer of assets and liabilities from BPA to Vall Banc was agreed, based on Law 8/2015, a “risk approach” was applied when conducting the revision and analysis of BPA’s clients at all times. However, this Law states: “the entity’s shareholders will be the ones to endure the losses and expenses of the proceedings”.

The same resolution defined that the clients were considered “suitable” when no signs of suspicious operations were detected, based on PwC’s revision and analysis of their profiles. The “suitable” and “non-suitable” qualifications derived from PwC’s methodology and procedures, however, they seem to be judgmental of value or process to some clients who have not been able to get back their savings.

Although the AREB has detected new eligible clients for transfer, the negligence remains by not notifying the clients in written about their new condition as Vall Banc clients. All of this despite the fact that the BPA provided Vall Banc with a list of all the transferrable accounts along with relevant personal data included.

The AREB has not complied with a transparent, impartial, competitive and nondiscriminatory process, then even though there has been a large transfer of clients, and also many audit proceedings to determine their profile as depositors, there is still certain assets in equity that remain stranded at a Swiss bank.

El último traspaso a Vall Banc, se realizó el 9 de noviembre del año pasado, e incluyó 87 cuentas que corresponden a 45 clientes, con un valor de cinco millones de euros, después de que fueron declarados “aptos”, y se les levantó la sospecha de estar relacionados con los casos de blanqueo por los que el banco fue intervenido el 10 de marzo de 2015.

The last transfer to Vall Banc was made on November 9 last year, and it included 87 accounts linked to 45 clients, with a total value of five million euros. This took place after these accounts were declared “suitable” and were lifted of the suspicion of being associated with money laundering cases for which the bank was intervened on March 10, 2015.