
The Vienna Bank Job - tosh
https://www.occrp.org/en/the-austrian-bank-job/the-vienna-bank-job
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dpfu
Because the article does not reflect the latest status of this story, here is
an update: The bank has now successfully filed a complaint against the
withdrawal of the license and is now again a bank, although under supervision:

"In the first instance, the Administrative Court temporarily suspended the
immediate effectiveness of the European Central Bank's (ECB's) withdrawal of
the former Meinl Bank's licence until a final decision has been reached [...].
The parent company of the bank, Far East, had lodged a complaint, according to
the court ruling." Source:
[https://wien.orf.at/stories/3022615/](https://wien.orf.at/stories/3022615/)
(Own translation, article is in German)

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ckastner
An additional data point: apparently, AAB (formerly Meinl) was in the process
of returning their banking license anyway, as they have had _massive_
compliance issues over the past decade, and just giving up on that part of the
business (and instead just focusing on asset management) would be a reasonable
thing to do.

I'm somewhat surprised the ECB didn't wait for this to happen. I guess they
wanted to send a message, or something.

~~~
thefabs
Yeah, I remember the same bank was in trouble just a few weeks ago for a
different set of compliance failures.

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ruthless_banker
You know what they say: If you want to steal a million dollars rob a bank. If
you want to steal a billion dollars make a bank.

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jhoechtl
As an Austria I feel deeply ashasmed for that practice. Even more so as the
origonal owner, Meinl himself, is known as a snobbish pile of dung.

Ironically, for many years and after WWII Meinl run a grocery store chain
which provided daily necessities for the regular people.

~~~
thedudeabides5
What's wrong with running a grocery story? Isn't AMZN making waves by moving
into...groceries

