Atlantic International Bank is winding up its operations - and it has turned to the Central Bank to help it to make an orderly closure. It's a major event for the offshore banking sector, because Atlantic International had the biggest portfolio and the biggest staff amongst international or offshore banks. This comes after the bank was hit hard in November of 2018 when the Federal Trade Commission in the US named it in a civil complaint against a land scam operation, Sanctuary Belize.
Today, the Prime Minister as the Minister of Finance said that because of that FTC action, which also froze its foreign assets, the bank has been forced to close:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Prime Minister
"They are unable, as I understand it, to sustain that campaign, the legal campaign, any longer. That is extremely costly. I gather there may have been an offer from the FDC for a settlement but the amount it involved in any case has killed the bank. So, as I understand it, the bank has asked the Central Bank to intervene and to assist them to wind up the institution. I think it is a great pity. I hope that the winding up will not leave too many of their customers unable to get out the full amount of their deposits. That has to be the primary concern."
Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"Are there systemic risks and also what will happen to their, quite significant loan portfolio?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"Well, again, maybe the person you talked to is the governor of the Central Bank. The liquidator or the receiver, whatever the title is of the official who would be appointed by the Central Bank to preside over the winding up, would have the obligation to auction portions of the loan portfolio or the entirety of the loan portfolio. Although, I suspect they won't do it all in one. That they might break up the portfolio. But clearly that is the going to be one method of proceeding."
Jules Vasquez
"But you have lost now two international banks in a calendar year- Choice Bank and now AIBL. It has to have some reputational or some tainting effect on the entire banking sector."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"In terms of Choice Bank, there is, in any event, less of a worry because their clientele, as I understand it, is almost exclusively foreign. So, I am not too concerned about that. AIBL is Belizean and so I have to be more concerned. And to the extent that this is in consequence of the allegations made by the FDC that is worrying. But I don't think there is any systemic risk. I think this is self-contained."
There is no public timeline for the bank's winding up of operations.
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