Finma in “intensive contact” with banks due to Signa collapse
Published: Thursday, Dec 21st 2023, 21:20
Updated At: Thursday, Dec 21st 2023, 21:20
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The collapse of the Austrian Signa Group is keeping the financial market supervisory authority Finma busy. It is in "intensive contact with various supervised parties" and has also taken measures at an early stage, a Finma spokesperson emphasized on Thursday. The news agency Bloomberg had previously reported on a Finma investigation at Bank Julius Baer.
Finma does not comment on the details of its supervisory activities for individual institutions, the spokesperson for the supervisory authority said in response to an AWP inquiry. In principle, the supervised financial institutions must "manage their risks appropriately". "If Finma identifies deficiencies in this area, it will investigate them and take measures if necessary," said the Finma spokesperson.
According to a Bloomberg article published on Thursday evening, the Finma investigation is to focus on inadequate control structures at the Zurich-based private bank Julius Baer, which granted large loans to René Benko's Signa Group. However, no individual within the bank is being held responsible for the situation, as the loans to Benko had passed through three different risk committees, Bloomberg quotes an informed person as saying.
At the end of November, the Zurich-based private bank Julius Baer announced that it had lent CHF 606 million to a "European conglomerate". According to insiders, this debtor is the troubled Signa Group owned by Austrian investor René Benko.
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