FBME Limited has renewed its commitment to fight all efforts by the Central Bank of Cyprus to expropriate and sell the Cyprus branch of its Bank.
The holding company issued a statement following the first day of the scheduled hearing –yesterday, October 21 – of its interim application by the District Court of Nicosia to disallow a sale of its branch.
FBME Limited strongly opposes the sale, which its regards as a hostile takeover and an illegal act. “The Central Bank should wait until the case is heard at the International Arbitral Tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, which is shortly to get underway,” it said in a statement.
The proposed sale was announced unilaterally by the Central Bank of Cyprus when it imposed Resolution measures on July 21 2014.
The measures, FBME claims, contradict the terms of the Lebanese-Cyprus Convention of June 5 2002, which prohibits any nationalisation or expropriation of the assets of the citizens of either country.
Moreover, Article 12 of the Convention, the bank noted, states that in any dispute the parties should endeavour to settle amicably.
“In the view of FBME Limited, the Central Bank of Cyprus’s action has been arbitrary and an abuse of its own Resolution Decree, which is meant to be used where banks are facing serious insolvency issues,” the statement continues.
FBME expresses that this Decree has been used to damage its customers and the reputation of the bank.
It has already caused the suspension of FBME Card Services and the redundancy of 75 Card Services’ employees.
The Decree has been made unilaterally and without regard to the superior rights of FBME Bank’s home supervisor, the Bank of Tanzania.
The actions of the Central Bank of Cyprus were made following allegations of money laundering against FBME Bank by the US Department of the Treasury’s FinCEN bureau, announced on July 17.
FinCEN is studying FBME’s response and is expected to issue final decisions in the coming weeks.
“FBME Limited believes the decision to press on with a sale of the Cyprus branch cuts across its rights to be granted a proper hearing by FinCEN,” the bank said.
“In addition, FBME believes that the Central Bank’s actions are damaging to Cyprus and its reputation as an international business centre and will attract further legal action as these measures begin to be contested in local and international courts,” the statement concluded.
SOURCE: GOLD NEWS
