Julius Baer reaches multi-million settlement with Signa insolvency administrator

As reported by the Swiss financial portal "Inside Paradeplatz," a double-digit million amount will flow to the insolvency estate under the global agreement now concluded. Julius Baer had previously rejected the allegations as "unbegründet und haltlos." With the settlement, the institution, under its new group CEO Stefan Bollinger, is turning away from public court proceedings.

According to "Inside Paradeplatz," another reason for the U-turn is the effort to clean up legacy issues from the real estate empire of Tyrolean investor René Benko. Julius Baer was one of the largest creditors of the Signa group and had to fully write off its exposure of 586 million Swiss francs (around 600 million euros).

Allegation of creditor preferential treatment

In addition to the allegation of creditor preferential treatment, a so-called "round-robin series of transactions" ("Karussell-Geschäftsreihe") was also at the heart of the lawsuit. According to the claims, around 60 million euros were briefly shuffled back and forth around the turn of the year 2022/2023 in order to artificially inflate the volume of client assets held in custody.

Open questions and ongoing proceedings

It remains unclear whether all legal disputes between the bank and Signa have been resolved with the settlement. The office of the insolvency administrator declined to comment when asked by APA. "Von Seiten des Insolvenzverwalters gab es dazu auf APA-Anfrage keinen Kommentar."

Further Signa entities file for insolvency

Independently of the civil proceedings in Vienna, an enforcement proceeding by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority Finma against Julius Baer over possible control deficiencies is still ongoing. The supervisory authority is examining whether the bank properly fulfilled its supervisory duties in connection with the Signa transactions.

In parallel, three further entities from the Signa corporate web have filed for insolvency at the Vienna Commercial Court. According to the creditor protection association Creditreform, the entities relate to the area around the Wiener Postsparkasse building. These three companies employ no staff.

The economic fallout from the Signa collapse has therefore not yet been conclusively dealt with. For Julius Baer, the settlement at least means a reduction in its open creditor risk, even though the originally claimed 62.2 million euros will not be repaid in full. The outcome of the Finma proceeding remains to be seen.