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Estonian cbank governor: Closure of Versobank might set precedent in Europe
BC, Tallinn, 20.05.2019.Print version
The closure of Versobank may set a precedent in European practice, Ardo Hansson, governor of the Estonian central bank said at the Lennart Meri Conference in Tallinn on Saturday, citing LETA/BNS.
In his reply to a query why the European Central Bank
(ECB) is not doing more to combat money laundering, Hansson said that the
ECB has no mandate for preventing money laundering. However, it has the authority
to issue and withdraw licenses, he added.\
"In Estonia, we had the case of Versobank, in which a
license was taken away from a solvent bank," Hansson noted adding that
authorities are often hesitant in cases like this, as such steps are more
easily taken against insolvent banks. Revoking a solvent market participant's
operating license can result in significant legal disputes, the governor of the
Bank of Estonia said.
"Our case was pushed by our Financial Supervision
Authority. It might set a precedent," Hansson said.