European authorities will close ABLV Bank AS, the Latvian lender facing U.S. accusations of money laundering tied to North Korea that’s central to the political scandal shaking the euro zone this week.
The European Central Bank initiated the radical step to stem the turmoil engulfing one of the currency area’s smallest members, saying Latvia’s third-largest lender was failing or likely to fail. It followed an ECB freeze on ABLV payments after the allegations triggered an exodus of deposits. Latvia’s representative on the ECB Governing Council also was detained a week ago amid bribery allegations.
Despite ABLV saying it raised more than 1.36 billion euros ($1.67 billion) over four business days, the ECB said it lacked adequate cash liquidity and referred the lender to Europe’s Single Resolution Board. The SRB deemed the bank non-critical for financial stability and said restructuring wasn’t in the public in
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