RIGA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Latvia's PNB Bank, whose operations were suspended in mid-August, was declared insolvent by a district court here on Thursday.
The court also appointed an insolvency administrator to the bank.
The Latvian banking regulator -- the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) -- filed the insolvency suit against PNB Bank on Aug. 22 after the European Central Bank (ECB), declared PNB Bank on Aug. 15 a failing financial institution and the Single Resolution Board (SRB) decided not to rescue it.
The banking regulator said in its statement that PBN Bank's direct supervisors, the ECB and the SRB, had repeatedly applied supervisory measures to the Latvian bank to ensure its compliance with regulatory requirements and given an opportunity to strengthen its capital adequacy by a certain deadline, but the bank failed to meet the supervisors' requirements.
In June 2019, the bank's key shareholder, Russian businessman Grigory Guselnikov, sold his stake in the bank to "EU and U.S. investors" without naming the buyers.
As it later transpired, Guselnikov, who holds dual Russian and British citizenship, had sold the bank to a group of investors led by international gas and oil tycoon Roger Tamraz, who had pledged to invest in the Latvian bank, but the FCMC said the rescue deal came too late.
