Former depositors of now insolvent Latvia’s AS PNB Banka who have yet to resolve any legal claims have been reminded of a looming deadline by the regulator, the Latvian central bank, Latvijas Banka (LB), said. eng.lsm.lv, the website of national Latvian broadcaster LSM, reported on March 4.

In accordance with the provisions of Paragraph four of Section 3 of the Deposit Guarantee Law, depositors of the insolvent AS PNB Banka, who are eligible for the guaranteed compensation but have yet to make a claim, will lose their right to receive the guaranteed compensation as from August 16 2024, so they have until August 15 to resolve matters.

"Latvijas Banka requests the depositors of the insolvent AS PNB Banka, who have not yet received the guaranteed compensation, to take all the necessary steps to receive it by 15 August 2024," said LB in a reminder.

The disbursement of the guaranteed compensation to the depositors of the insolvent AS PNB Banka is provided by AS Citadele banka. 

Guaranteed compensation totalling €266 million had been disbursed to the depositors of PNB Banka by 31 December 2023 with 46 208 depositors receiving the guaranteed compensation.

The outstanding amount of the guaranteed compensation not yet disbursed constitutes €8.9 million spread between 14 989 depositors, including 805 non-residents, according to LB's information.

As reported, formerly high-flying PNB Banka was declared insolvent in 2019 after the European Central Bank deemed it "failing or likely to fail".  In March of that year this year, regulatory oversight of PNB was given directly to the European Central Bank. PNB had a former Nato Secretary General on its council.  

In July 2017 Norvik was fined more than a million euros by the financial regulator after being named by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as one of the Latvian banks used to channel funds to North Korea. It was formerly known as Norvik bank but later rebranded as PNB, eng.lsm.lv said.