4th bank of Andorra shaken by a bleaching scandal – The Obs

Andorra la Vella (Andorra) (AFP) – The banking sector in the Principality of Andorra is a storm with the first victim in a Madrid international subsidiary of Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) following to US accusations of money laundering and ties to the Mafia.

One of the senior officials of the bank in Andorra, Joan Pau Miquel Prats, was indicted Monday for money laundering and links with the Chinese and jailed mafia.

In this context, the Andorran authorities are mounted slot to assure the solvency of the principality. Faced with this “extraordinary situation”, various initiatives have been undertaken with the sole aim to “preserve the Andorran financial center,” announced to the press the Minister of Finance Jordi Cinca.

In Spain, the subsidiary BPA Banco Madrid, filed for bankruptcy after a “very strong financial deterioration (…) result in significant customer withdrawals,” announced Monday the Bank of Spain took control on March 10 .

This 100% subsidiary of BPA since 2011 specializes in wealth management, with some 15,000 private and institutional clients in Spain. Manager of a total of 6 billion in assets, it has been suspend operations

-. Reassure face panic –

In Andorra, where BPA is managed since March 10 by a trio of personalities appointed by the Andorran National Institute of Finance (INAF, the Treasury), customers panicked Monday morning. Angry people in long queues tried to withdraw their money and close their accounts, was a correspondent for AFP.

But the bank has limited withdrawals to 2,500 euros person, per account, per week, confirmed Mr Cinca.

The shareholders, representing 82% of the capital of the BPA, said that “there is no solvency problems” in this bank, in a statement Monday. They want “the best solution in the shortest possible time.” To do this, with the INAF which deposed the Board of Directors of the BPA, shareholders want a meeting with all the Andorran banking sector.

Mr. Cinca heavily emphasized the solvency of the other four banks that follow all the international exchange of information standards: Credit Andorrà MoraBanc, Andbank and Banc Sabadell d’Andorra

The government, does. -it also recalled, committed since the signing in 2009 of the first tax information exchange agreements, transparency, prevention of bleaching and the Principality is governed by international regulation.

On March 13, Andorra rating was downgraded by two rating agencies Standard and Poor’s, BBB, and Fitch, B + with a “negative watch”.

This storm occurs as the country emerges from new legislative elections in late February and expects a new government. It should not change much since the party remained Antoni Marti majority.

The United States hit hard there for ten days. The organization of the Treasury FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) announced that “senior corrupt officials BPA, as well as anti-money laundering controls too loose, made of BPA easy via money launderers in order to go through the US financial system revenues of organized crime, corruption and human trafficking. ” The activities relate to criminal organizations in Russia and China to “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

In addition to Spain, BPA is present in Panama, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Uruguay.