site.btaCentral Bank to Appeal Corpbank's Bankruptcy Adjudication with Regard to Initial Date of Insolvency

Central Bank to Appeal Corpbank's Bankruptcy Adjudication with Regard to Initial Date of Insolvency

Sofia, April 24 (BTA) - The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) will
appeal, within the statutory seven-day time limit, the Sofia
City Court judgment of 22 April 2015 by which Corpbank was
adjudicated bankrupt, with regard to the initial date of the
bank's insolvency which the court set at November 6, 2014, the
central bank said in a press release on Friday.

On June 20, 2014, Corpbank (Bulgaria's fourth biggest lender)
suspended all operations after a panic run by depositors left it
illiquid. The central bank's Governing Council withdrew
Corpbank's banking licence on November 6, 2014, and the bank's
bankruptcy was petitioned on November 7. The Sofia City Court
adjudicated the bank bankrupt on April 22.

"November 6 is the date on which the BNB Governing Council
adopted a decision to withdraw Corpbank's licence. The central
bank is of the opinion that the initial date of insolvency
should be set at September 30, 2014, when Corpbank reported
negative own funds and negative capital adequacy in its
financial statements and supervisory reports," the press release
reads.

"When a bank's own funds are a negative quantity, the BNB
Governing Board mandatorily withdraws is licence, which it did
by its decision of November 6, 2014 on the basis of the bank's
reports as at September 30, 2014," the BNB argues.

In the same press release, the central bank states that BNB
Governor Ivan Iskrov "will not yield to attempts at pressure and
deflection of public attention and has been guided by the rule
of law in all his acts." "Any events of an informal nature, the
invitees to which included the BNB Governor, have not influenced
and will not influence the central bank's principled policy,"
the central bank writes. The reference is to a video aired on
Nova Television late Thursday evening, showing Iskrov and
Corpbank's majority shareholder Tzvetan Vassilev perform in duet
a popular folk song.