A ruling from the Landgericht Berlin will provide excitement when a bank fails, investors can only receive compensation in the amount of statutory deposit insurance sue in court. On the far more lavish promises of voluntary deposit protection for banks, however, no legal claim.
FRANKFURT. It is a verdict with explosive force: when a bank fails, investors can only receive compensation in the amount of statutory deposit insurance sue in court. On the far lusher gives promise of the voluntary deposit protection for banks, however no legal claim. That view has long been known among lawyers indeed, a recent verdict of the District Court of Berlin, she moved but only now the public aware.
starting point was the dispute between a film fund and the Fund of the Federal Association of German Banks (BdB). The Film Fund was in vain by the BdB compensation for royalties demanded that Germany had the insolvent subsidiary of U.S. bank Lehman Brothers will pay. There are according to the BdB Statutes but no foundation.
unanimous interpretation of the law
But with the statutes BdB, the court held (stock number 10 O 360/09) to not be big. "The court says in simple terms, even if an investor would have under the statutes of the Deposit Protection Fund is entitled to compensation, he could not these to sue in court," said Axel Half Meier, Professor of Civil and Business Law at the Frankfurt School of Finance.
This is serious. Many banks advertise the voluntary deposit protection, which is much higher than the legal. The problem is that the Berliners judges do not represent exotic views. "This view is, moreover, the almost unanimous view of the literature, that contractual rights to benefits from the Settlement Fund are excluded, "the judges said.
minted is based on the BdB. What matters for the entire industry relevant though, is that all voluntary schemes" to exclude a legal claim, "as the BdB explicitly stated to the Handelsblatt. This includes savings and cooperative banks with a. Both financial networks to advertise with the so-called Institute backup to proactively prevent the bankruptcy of one of its members. The Savings Banks Association DSGV argued that its system prevents bankruptcies will and thus meets the legal right of all customers.
to now, always. Only: No savings bank or Public Bank's rescue could have sought, under the statutes. The Federation of People's Cooperative Banks said, but customers were independent of the institutional protection of compensation claims.
Half Meier denies, however, that an individual entitlement exists. Therefore, he considers it "problematic" that the banks to the outside legal certainty suggested. "In reality, there is an obligation hope - just like the way Merkel promised that the government guarantee the safety of all deposits," said the lawyer. correspondingly depressed the mood in the industry. "The whole thing stands or falls with the trust," it says in the industry. The ruling came the entire banking industry completely inconvenient. "Since no one has got over it," complains one insider. German bank, Commerzbank, Postbank and Hypo-Vereinsbank would not comment yesterday on the ruling.
It was left to the BdB to promote trust. He pointed out that he had been all the legitimate demands met, "regardless of any legal claim". Otherwise, "Reputation and destroys confidence in the deposit insurance for private banks irrevocable". The example given by BdB also shows the limits of the system: after the Lehman bankruptcy, the association had to tap into the bailout fund Soffin billions to compensate all investors.
Source: Handelsblatt, 12.07.2010
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