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# FMA Austria orders European American Investment Bank AG to cease business over AML failings
- URL: https://www.theglobalbanker.com/fma-austria-orders-european-american-investment-bank-ag-to-cease-business-over-aml-failing/
- Published: 2024-10-16T14:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-10T13:42:07.000Z
- Description: Austria's FMA prohibited EURAM Bank from continuing business with immediate effect on 16 October 2024, triggering a payment stop and deposit-guarantee payouts of up to €100,000 per depositor.
- Author: TGB Editorial Team
- Tags: Regulations, Europe, #archive

Austria's Financial Market Authority (FMA) on 16 October 2024 prohibited European American Investment Bank AG, known as EURAM Bank, from continuing its business operations with immediate effect. The emergency decision triggered an official stoppage of payments at the Vienna-based bank.

#### GROUNDS FOR THE DECISION

The FMA cited severe deficiencies in the bank's prevention of money laundering under the Financial Market Anti-Money Laundering Act (FM-GwG), which had already led it to prohibit the bank from taking on new business. It also pointed to substantial write-downs required in the bank's loan portfolio as a result of its lending practices, and said the bank had been unable to carry out a required capital increase of €25 million or to demonstrate a viable orderly self-liquidation.

The closure followed a series of supervisory measures during 2024\. In a decision dated 16 January 2024, the FMA barred EURAM from entering into new business relationships and instructed it to establish compliance with anti-money laundering rules, citing failures to carry out risk assessments at company and customer level. The bank appealed, but the FMA confirmed the measure in April 2024, and in July 2024 it ordered compliance without delay under threat of a coercive penalty. On 16 August 2024 it appointed Gerd Konezny as temporary administrator to assist the bank's management board. The regulator had also imposed a coercive penalty over the bank's failure to submit audited financial statements for 2023 and ordered it to hold an extraordinary general meeting to decide on a capital increase.

#### DEPOSIT GUARANTEE

Eligible deposits are protected by Einlagensicherung AUSTRIA up to €100,000 per depositor, with up to €500,000 repayable in certain circumstances. The FMA said the deposit guarantee scheme must also take money-laundering reviews into account when making repayments.