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PRESS RELEASE No 112/22

Luxembourg, 22 June 2022

Judgment of the General Court in Case T-797/19 | Anglo Austrian AAB and Belegging-Maatschappij "FarEast" v ECB

The General Court confirms the withdrawal of AAB Bank’s authorisation as a credit institution

That withdrawal by the ECB is justified inter alia by AAB Bank’s serious breaches of the rules on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism

Since 2010, the Österreichische Finanzmarktbehörde (Austrian financial markets supervisory authority; ‘the FMA’) has adopted a large number of injunctions and sanctions against AAB Bank, a credit institution established in Austria. On that basis, in 2019, the FMA submitted to the European Central Bank (ECB) a draft decision to withdraw AAB Bank’s authorisation to access the activities of a credit institution. By its decision, 1 the ECB withdrew that authorisation. In essence, it considered that, based on the FMA’s findings, made in the context of carrying out its task of prudential supervision and in relation to AAB Bank’s continued and repeated non-compliance with the requirements on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism and internal governance, that institution was not able to ensure a sound management of its risks.