Swiss Regulator Shuts Down FlowBank for Compliance Breaches, Forces Bankruptcy
FlowBank, an online Swiss bank offering cryptocurrency trading, has been shut down and declared bankrupt after the Swiss financial regulator found it had “seriously breached” operational standards.
FlowBank, a Swiss-based bank involved in cryptocurrency trading, had connections to many crypto platforms e.g. TrueUSD stablecoin issuer Techteryx, crypto asset manager CoinShares, and reportedly Binance. This Bank was established in 2020.
On 13 June 2024, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority stated that FlowBank seriously breached the standards required for it to operate as a bank and also said that the bank no longer has the minimum capital required for its business operations.
As per the statement by the Swiss regulatory body, FlowBank cannot be saved or reorganized, and there are concerns that it owes more money than it has, making it financially unstable.
On the morning of 13 June, FlowBank declared its bankruptcy and now no services of this bank are accessible & available.
As per reports, this bank has assets worth $760 million (680 million Swiss francs), manages over 22,000 client accounts, and employs about 140 staff globally.
In June 2023, FINMA, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, hired a supervisor to investigate FlowBank’s financial activities and also figure out its compliance failures.
Later investigation found that FlowBank was engaged in “numerous higher-risk business relationships” and processed large financial transactions without conducting proper due diligence, violating regulatory standards.
When FINMA discovered that FlowBank had breached several regulatory standards, it ordered the bank to withdraw its banking license on March 8, 2024. However, this decision is not yet final because it is currently under appeal at the Federal Administrative Court.
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