Nemea owners tell MFSA to lift €250 withdrawal limit

The owners of Nemea Bank, the online-only bank that was last week taken under administration, has written to the Malta Financial Services Authority protesting that the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers to take charge of Nemea’s assets was “an arbitrary act without any valid legal grounds.”

The bank’s co-chairmen Mika Lehto and Heikki Niemelä, said they would file an appeal to the MFSA directive and demanded that the regulator lifts the daily €250 withdrawal limit.

“The withdrawal limit is against the interests and the fundamental rights of the depositors of the bank to own and operate a payment account at any bank of their choosing. The withdrawal limit prevents both retail and business clients from exercising their legal rights to use their funds.

“In particular, the withdrawal limit is highly-damaging to all businesses using the account at the bank as their primary cash and payment account, with volumes of transactions exceeding such limits by large multiples and with some of which being exclusively dependent on their ability to perform transactions through their account at the Bank, to operate their business and pay salaries.”

The two chairmen said the limit was not supported by any business, regulatory, protection of retail or business customers or legal applicable grounds and insisted that the bank was “fundamentally sound, solid and highly liquid.”

Although the MFSA has cited “serious regulatory concerns” were flagged by the European Central Bank, Nemea has insisted that its liquidity consists of cash, loans and advances to banks, balances with the Central Bank of Malta, Malta Government Stocks and maturing loans standing at some €28.7 million for maturities of less than 30 days, which exceeds savings accounts of €21 million and regulatory ratios.

“As the MFSA is aware, the bank does not have creditors save for normal daily operational expenses of which none are overdue. The directive therefore refers to protection of creditors which the bank does not have. We request to immediately reinstate the standard daily withdrawal limits of €20,000 per individual account holder.”