OWH SE i.L. is the renamed VTB Bank (Europe) SE i.L. The name change was approved by the Annual General Meeting on December 11, 2023 and has taken effect on January 2, 2024.

Current situation

The extraordinary general meeting of the bank on March 24, 2023 in Frankfurt am Main had passed the resolution that the bank will be liquidated on April 1, 2023 and transferred to a liquidation process. The abbreviation “i.L.” in the company name means “in liquidation”. During the solvent liquidation phase OWH SE i.L. continues to process all existing business and customer relationships until the liquidation is completed.

OWH SE i.L. is majority owned by PJSC VTB Bank, St. Petersburg / Russian Federation, which was added to the group of sanctioned companies by the European Union (EU) on April 8, 2022.

In April 2022, the German supervisory authority, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), prohibited PJSC VTB Bank from exercising the voting rights arising from its shares in its subsidiary VTB Bank (Europe) SE., i.e. now OWH SE i.L. At the same time, BaFin prohibited the bank’s management to follow instructions from PJSC VTB Bank (see BaFin’s press release of April 10, 2022). In June 2022 the local court (Amtsgericht) Frankfurt am Main upon application by BaFin appointed a trustee to exercise the voting rights of PJSC VTB Bank at general meetings. These measures – together with the ordered ban on making payments or other asset transfers in favor of VTB Group – result in the bank being completely shielded from its Russian parent company and its group.

Thus, OWH SE i.L. does not fall under the EU sanctions imposed in connection with the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine. This was inter alia explicitly confirmed by Deutsche Bundesbank, which is the competent authority for overseeing financial sanctions in Germany.

With regard to sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) (UK) and the United States of America (USA) concerning PJSC VTB Bank and OWH SE i.L., the competent authorities issued licenses to OWH SE i.L. allowing transactions only in the course of its liquidation.

BaFin has appointed Mr. Frank Hellwig as special representative with managerial authority for the bank. The bank’s asset and liquidity situation are closely monitored by BaFin.

Liquidators:

Frank Hellwig (Special Representative of BaFin)

Miro Zadro

Chairman of the supervisory board:

Dr. Peter Schad (Special Representative of BaFin)