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After the Hungarian central bank revoked the activity license of Sberbank Hungary, the local branch of Russia’s largest bank, the credit institution’s clients were set to receive compensation of up to EUR 100,000. Still, about 60% of the deposits in Sberbank Hungary will not be reimbursed by the National Deposit Insurance Fund (NDIF), according to the liquidator.
Sberbank Hungary entered into a serious solvency and capital position due to negative effects of the Russia-Ukraine war on its parent company, Vienna-based Sberbank Europe AG, and its owner Russian Sberbank late February. Due to the serious liquidity and capital problems of the domestic credit institution, the Hungarian central bank decided to revoke Sberbank Hungary’s operating license and order its liquidation.
As a result, Hungary’s National Deposit Insurance Fund (NDIF) guaranteed Sberbank Hungary clients compensation up to the 100,000 euro coverage threshold.
Previously, it was unknown exactly how many of the bank’s customers held funds above this amount, or exactly how much deposit the bank had at the start of the winding up process.
As it turns out, the deposit base of Sberbank Hungary amounted to HUF 360 billion at the beginning of the liquidation, economic news site Portfolio learned from the liquidator PSFN Kft.
Of this HUF 360 billion, corporate deposits amounted to just over HUF 250 billion (12,000 customers) and retail deposits to less than HUF 110 billion (55,000 customers).
The NDIF had previously disclosed that its deposit insurance liability amounted to HUF 146.7 billion. This means that HUF 213 billion, or 60% of the deposits, were uninsured.
In other words, according to the news site, some 188 billion forints of around 1,000 corporate customers and 25 billion forints of nearly 1,000 retail customers were not covered by the insurance provided by NDIF.
Featured photo by Noémi Bruzák/MTI