Keystone-SDA
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June 14, 2024 – 09:50
(Keystone-ATS) Flowbank, bankrupted by the financial policeman Finma, “stands out with the greatest firmness” against the regulator’s decision, which would constitute a violation of the rights of the Geneva online bank and its shareholders.
The bankruptcy was published this Friday by the Official Gazette of Commerce (Fosc).
The company Flowb Holding Switzerland, owner of Flowbank, intends to initiate all necessary procedures to obtain respect for its rights, it states in a press release released Thursday evening, deploring a “considerable damage” which would have been caused by the decision of Finma.
Founder of the establishment and administrator of Flowb Holding Switzerland, Charles-Henri Sabet expresses his incomprehension. “This decision condemns an innovative, growing bank, whose activity was profitable and which was known and appreciated by thousands of clients and partners in Switzerland and abroad,” he said, quoted in the press release.
For online banking, Finma’s decision is based on “no basis in fact”. The regulator bases its decision on an insufficient capital base, a situation which Flowb Holding Switzerland would have remedied by depositing the necessary money “in a consignment account opened with a Swiss bank”.
eventful history
This deposit would have made it possible to temporarily resolve the issue of equity while waiting for the financial policeman to accept a capital increase decided by the bank’s shareholders.
Launched at the end of 2020 with the ambition of becoming one of the benchmark players in the sector, Flowbank employs 147 people and has 22,000 customers.
The Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) announced on Thursday the opening of bankruptcy proceedings against Flowbank, on the basis of a serious breach of minimum capital requirements. A week earlier, the regulator had noted that the Geneva bank no longer had sufficient own liquidity to carry out its activity. Finma also has “serious reasons” to fear that the bank is overindebted.
This epilogue punctuates the turbulent relationship between Flowbank and its regulatory authority. Finma opened a first enforcement procedure against Flowbank in October 2021, then a second in 2023, finding serious violations of supervisory law. The financial watchdog’s investigations revealed “serious irregularities” and led Finma to order the withdrawal of the banking license, a decision contested in court. The case is still pending, due to an appeal filed before the Federal Administrative Court.
