The creditors of the bankrupt Sberbank CZ will be paid in the absolute majority of cases by Komerční banka, which already has experience in paying compensation from the Guarantee Fund. In all cases, the payment will be non-cash, where the money will be sent to a bank account in the Czech Republic, exclusively in Czech crowns. The insolvency administrator of Sberbank, Jiřina Lužová, said today.
The Municipal Court in Prague approved the payment of CZK 57 billion to some 16,000 creditors of Sberbank CZ in the form of a partial distribution two weeks ago. All groups of creditors could receive 95 percent of their claims within two months.
The Prague City Court declared bankruptcy on Sberbank CZ at the end of last August. The Czech National Bank finally revoked the bank’s banking licence in early May and the Prague City Court then sent the bank into liquidation. The CNB initiated the steps to revoke the licence on 28 February 2022. The reason for this was the deterioration of Sberbank CZ’s situation due to the outflow of deposits after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Clients with deposits up to EUR 100,000, i.e. approximately CZK 2.5 million, have already been paid by the Financial Market Guarantee System. More than 87,000 Sberbank CZ clients have so far been reimbursed for their deposits through Komerční banka branches. They have received over CZK 25 billion. The Guarantee System began paying out deposit refunds from the failed Sberbank CZ on 9 March 2022, seven working days after the bank’s collapse.
After the insolvency administrator announces that the payout has started, the creditor is supposed to visit a selected branch of Komerční banka. There, she will verify his identity. The creditor shall provide the number of the bank account into which he wishes to receive the money. A list of the necessary documents that the creditor will have to bring to the selected branch will be provided on the websites of Sberbank CZ and KB. The creditor will also be able to apply for the payment by granting a power of attorney to his/her attorney who will visit the selected KB branch.
If the creditor’s payment is affected by execution, insolvency proceedings, inheritance proceedings, security under the Criminal Procedure Code or any other specific circumstance preventing payment directly to the creditor, the beneficiaries and the creditor will be paid directly by the insolvency administrator, not by KB. If the creditor fails to collect his/her established claim by the deadline, repayment will subsequently be possible together with the final schedule.
“We hereby ask the creditors for a little more patience. If the decision to allow the partial schedule comes into effect as expected, I will publish the date for the start of the payouts in the first half of December and with it we will post on the websites of Sberbank CZ and Komerční banka the final information on the payout process itself and the documents that creditors will need for the payouts,” Lužová said.
Source: CTK
