Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1313950
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 2 DECEMBER 2020 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The controllers of the Torre d'Annunziata shipping com- pany, whose fraudulent bank- ruptcy left thousands of inves- tors with nothing, have already rejected a €50 million out-of- court settlement put forward by BOV earlier this year. In 2018, BOV appealed an Italian court's order for a pre- cautionary warrant that re- quested it to hive off €363 mil- lion, as a provision for damages requested by liquidators of the Deiulemar group and repre- sentatives of the company's 13,000 Italian bondholders. The court has yet to issue a sentence and the case can be expected to go on into ap- peal and to the final Cassation Court decision. But the bank remains in- tent on settling the case out of court, even though it insists it had no blame and played no part in the decision-making that led the investors to lose their money. As expected, Hunkin would not say how high BOV was willing to go to settle the case out of court. But he admitted that the bank had put aside €100 million to settle three litigation cases it had pending when Hunkin took over the CEO role last year. The other two litigation cas- es – one involving the La Val- lette Multi Manager Property Fund and the other involving the Swedish Pension Agency – have since been settled out of court for €4.6 million and €26.5 million respectively. Effectively, that leaves BOV around €70 million to settle the Deiulemar out of court, al- though there is nothing hold- ing the bank from going even higher than that in order to en- sure closure. Additionally, more funds will be released and available after the bank reached an agreement with insurers to pay a part – as yet unspecified – of the SPA settlement. Bank of Valletta is facing such a lofty claim for damages because, in 2009, it had taken over a trust that held €363 million in assets of the D e i u l e m a r c o m p a n y , which filed for bankrupt- cy in 2012. A Rome criminal court in 2004 had already determined that the Deiulemar company had under-declared liabilities of €700 million. In 2014, seven members of the three founding families of the Deiulemar company were jailed for up to 17 years for ille- gal financial transactions, ow- ing €800 million to creditors. Correspondence banking Hunkin said BOV was also pursuing intensive dialogue with banks in the United States after Raiffeisen Bank announced it would no longer offer BOV corre- sponding services after March 2021. This would leave BOV cus- tomers with no sure and swift way of affecting payments in US dollars. "Having a corresponding bank in the US is key for our customers trading in US dol- lars," Hunkin said. "And we are currently in negotiations with Raiffeisen and other in- stitutions to try and secure corresponding services beyond March 2021. He said potential banks were nervous in dealing with Malta with the Moneyval being a ma- jor issue. "Having Malta fail in nine out of 11 of Moneyal's focus area, is of major concern to poten- tial correspondence banks," Hunkin said. "And with some foreign banks already nervous with Malta's focus on gaming, marijuana and bitcoin, Moneyval adds a further complication that the BOV needs to overcome if we are to secure a US correspond- ing bank." He said that the bank was, in the meantime, preparing for a worst-case scenario and was meeting those customers that needed US dollar correspond- ing services and discussing a possible scenario where such services were no longer avail- able. "One solution would be for customers to start issuing pay- ments in Euros, and we are currently encouraging affected customers to investigate how feasible such a switch would be for them." Above: Investors from the 13,000 bondholders whose savings were wiped out in the Deiulemar €800 million crash take to the streets of Torre del Greco, Naples • Inset: BOV CEO Rick Hunkin BOV planning for possibility of having no US correspondent bank A woman's lifeless body washed ashore at Bugibba earlier on Tuesday, which the police have identified as being that of a 73-year-old from Mosta. Police said in a statement that the body was sighted at around 2:00 pm along the Buġibba coastline. A medical team from Mater Dei Hospital certified the woman dead on site. Magistrate Marseanne Farrugia is conducting an inquiry into the case and the district police are investigating. Body washed ashore in Bugibba is of 73-year- old woman from Mosta