The government will insist before European agencies for a consent for the rehabilitation of the Sberbank Croatia bank rather than its liquidation after the ECB assessed that Sberbank Europe AG and its subsidiaries in Croatia and Slovenia are failing or likely to fail.

“We will insist that Croatia should be given an opportunity to rehabilitate Sberbank Croatia,” Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said at the government’s meeting on Monday after the European Central Bank issued a press release reading that the ECB has assessed that “Sberbank Europe AG and its two subsidiaries in the banking union, Sberbank d.d. in Croatia and Sberbank banka d.d. in Slovenia, are failing or likely to fail owing to a deterioration of their liquidity situation.”

The Austrian parent bank Sberbank Europe AG is fully owned by Public Joint-Stock Company Sberbank of Russia, whose majority shareholder is the Russian Federation (50% plus one voting share).

The ECB took the decision after determining that, in the near future, the bank is likely to be unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fall due. Sberbank Europe AG and its subsidiaries experienced significant deposit outflows as a result of the reputational impact of geopolitical tensions. This led to a deterioration of its liquidity position, the ECB says.

Concerning Sberbank Croatia, Maric informed the government that before the outbreak of the crisis, there were almost 70,000 deposit holders in that commercial lender, and most of them are are covered by the scheme protecting up to €100,000 per depositor per bank in the European Union.

The Croatian Deposit Insurance Agency (HAOD), that is the state budget, has enough funds at its disposal to pay the protected deposits within seven to 10 days, said the minister.

These deposits reach 3.82 billion kuna, the finance minister said.

As for SWIFT system, currently only the Russian central bank has been excluded as part of the sanctions against Russia, the minister said adding that the sanction could be expanded to cover other banks, too.